


Lester's Wrestling Renaissance (LWR)

by mr_williams_in2



Category: Professional Wrestling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Wrestling, Drama, Multi, Urban Fantasy, Wrestling
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-14
Updated: 2015-04-04
Packaged: 2018-03-17 19:28:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 36,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3541253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mr_williams_in2/pseuds/mr_williams_in2
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The stars of one of the world's most famous wrestling promotions gather on the company's 50th anniversary to reminisce about the good times, the bad times, the downright ugly times. The stories of the extreme team mum Abdhala Qadir, the unpredictable man mountain James Nash and the self-centred wannabe Logan Miles clash violently under the watchful eye of Chairman Bradley Lester.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Takeover

News reporter: Welcome back to the 6 o’clock news. The wrestling world is in mourning today following the death of legendary wrestling promoter Bradley H. Lester Sr. in a traffic accident on the Kingston High Road in Jamaica early this morning. The founder and long-time president of the multi-billion dollar Lester Corporation was accompanying a convoy of equipment and merchandise to Kingston Airport on their way to a live broadcast in Birmingham to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the company’s collaboration with Eric A. Scott’s Wrestling Farm, which would have been showing on all major sports channels worldwide this Sunday evening. Mr. Lester’s car collided with a drunk driver travelling at over 100 miles per hour, overturning both cars and killing both him and his wife on impact. The broadcast is still scheduled to go ahead as a tribute to Mr. Lester’s memory. He is survived by his two sons, who will jointly inherit his company. Over now to Sean Pomeroy, who is with the CEO of Scott’s Wrestling Farm, Fleance Usher, for a few words on the tragedy…

25 years later…

Paige Pomeroy: Good evening, and welcome to this week’s edition of Wrestling Review. This week we celebrate a truly momentous occasion, for today marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Lester Corporation, the company that put Jamaica firmly on the wrestling map. The company that always gave us wrestling gold has finally achieved the gold standard! And to help us to celebrate this amazing milestone and to help usher in the future of world-class professional wrestling, we have some very special guests, who will be joining us every night this week to give us a rundown of the history of the entire second phase of Lester Corporation programming, Lester’s Wrestling Renaissance. They are all multiple-time World Champions, they have given the best years of their lives to this industry and, what’s more, they are all still in action every week of the year. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the show Abdhala Qadir, Logan Miles and James Nash!

The audience applause as Qadir, Miles and Nash enter the studio. They wave and bow to the audience before taking their places on the couch. Pomeroy sits on her large armchair. Qadir is a beautiful Arabian woman attired in a white short-sleeved dress and her signature red bandana. However, tonight she has forsaken her usual scarlet makeup for striking black eyeliner and a silver necklace bearing the name ‘Kristie’. Nash is looking sharp in his dark green suit, and his now white hair cascades at least halfway down his back, a far cry from his in-ring appearance in which it is tied up tightly to keep it out of the way of his powerful techniques. Miles’ appearance is perhaps the most surprising of all, being in the transition period of his nth gimmick change, which has become a gimmick in itself. His hair is still very long, but is now bleached blonde combined with a crisp white suit yet a noticeably black shirt, because old habits die hard.

The interview set is of the typical British chat show layout, with a large armchair for the host and a curved sofa for the guests. In front of the guests is a low table with their water and wine, but instead of a fruit-laden centrepiece, the centre of the table is occupied by a miniature replica of a wrestling ring, occupied this time by framed photographs of a smiling Jamaican man in his mid-30s, and a similar-aged American woman in a black dress.

Paige: Now, some viewers might be asking why we are only covering the second phase of the Lester Corporation’s history in professional wrestling, and our answer is that Lester’s Wrestling Renaissance provided more drama in its relatively short time than in the whole history of wrestling before it, and that includes the tenure of Bradley H. Lester Sr. in its first phase. LWR was the show that changed what wrestling meant to us, the show that produced the amazing talent you see before you today, the show that was the forerunner to the countless imitators all over the world. Wrestling history truly began with LWR. But where did it all start? At the top of the show, you saw the announcement that shook the world 25 years ago; the announcement of the death of Bradley H. Lester Sr., the chairman of the Lester Corporation. This then led to the founding of LWR… but it wasn’t as simple or fluid as that, was it, Abdhala?

Qadir: Certainly not. There were the desires of both the Lester boys to take into consideration. The story really begins with the older brother, Otto. Now, Otto was a very bright individual, and he’d worked a long time to become a chartered business accountant. His first job after becoming chartered was managing the accounts of the Lester Corporation…  
Miles: The bloke didn’t have many creative smarts, but Lester Sr. wanted to keep his family close and involved with the business and then he’d have a legacy to pass down, so he kept Otto in the company doing his accounts. But Otto was just bored sh-… witless with wrestling. After a while he just flat-out refused to watch the shows because the repetitiveness bored him so much, and he just worked and worked and worked instead. Prat nearly worked himself into the ground, he was so driven with his work, yet so desperate to get out of this dead-end business, as he saw it.

Nash: Yeah, but he wasn’t totally above it all, either. He’d go into the locker rooms and talk to the wrestlers, and he soon found that he was wrong about a lot of their motivation. Most of them were just your average Joe working the wrestling circuits to raise money for other stuff, like funding for business. They surprised Otto ‘cos they were actually speaking a language he understood. He thought he’d be hit with all kinds of wrestling jargon: bumps, heat, pops, stuff like that, when he talked to them, but he began to find his place among the more business-minded of them. Together, they knew that the Lester Corporation couldn’t last forever at the rate it was going, and they all had ideas to save the company when it fell and push it in a new direction. Then the time came sooner than he thought…

Paige: You’re talking about the accident, I suppose?

Nash: Yeah.

Miles: And that was exactly the break Otto needed…

Qadir: …As morbid as that sounds…

Miles: But Otto was there, and he had a plan. As far as he was concerned, his brother had just pissed off to Japan with his half of the Lester estate, leaving Otto a clear path to the top of the Lester Corporation. He was already well-known with the board and though they were a bit iffy about his new direction for the company, let’s just say the friends Otto had made in the locker room helped to persuade them to vote him in unanimously. Otto pulled the plug on the wrestling shows straight away and dismantled the wrestling promotion overnight. The only thing he allowed to remain was the Lester Corp Arena; he still had a grudging respect for his dad and decided to turn it into a museum in his memory.

Qadir: And in about a week he had turned the whole company over to small-scale bespoke electronics manufacturing, based on the ideas of his new board of directors that he’d hired straight from the locker room. In the meantime, contractors were sent to strip down the old arena and convert it into the museum, which Otto was due to open to the public a year later. He didn’t oversee the work being done… maybe he should have done, because he got a nasty surprise on opening day.

Paige: Yes, we have a video of the opening day, and this is where the story really starts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The video opens with a Lester Corporation company car pulling up to the site of the old Lester Corporation Arena. The car is immediately thronged by reporters asking unintelligible questions over the top of each other, and Otto is thus unable to catch a glimpse of his new museum. The anxious look on the faces of the reporters, and of his driver as he opens the door, gives Otto a little shiver, but he decides that they must be anxious for the success of the grand opening, if not excited about it. He pushes through the crowd before turning back to answer some reporters’ questions.

Reporter 1: Is this really the way you had envisioned the monument to your father?

Otto: Of course! This was his life’s work and this is how I choose to remember him.

Reporter 2: What is this supposed to be saying about the new direction of the Lester Corporation?

Otto: I am saying that although I did not agree with my father’s idea of good business, I will not forget my roots and the company that made us the successes we were. This building will be a reminder of my father’s legacy and a tribute to how far this company has come.

Reporter: So what does ‘LWR’ stand for, exactly?

Otto: ‘LWR’?

Otto turns to look at the building behind him, and he is aghast to see that in place of the old arena that was supposed to have been a museum there is instead a gleaming new arena emblazoned with the mysterious acronym ‘LWR’ above the glass-roofed main entrance. The arena has been expanded over a greater area than the previous one, taking up a large amount of the space that was previously the car park out front, but Otto can see a ramp down to an immense subterranean car park on either side of the building.

Otto: What is this?

Board Member: It’s a new arena, sir.

Otto: I can see that, Jared! But how? I didn’t commission this! What happened to my museum?

Board Member: Maybe you should ask Mr. Lester, sir?

Otto: Mr. Lester? What are you talking about, man? I am Mr. Lester!

At this point, the automatic doors to the arena slide open, and a man very similar in appearance to Otto but slightly younger steps out onto the pristine paving stones in front of the entrance.

New Face: I think he was referring to me, dear brother…

Otto: Bradley!

New Face: Yes, Otto. Good morning, members of the press. Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Bradley Harrison Lester… Junior!

Reporter 3: Lester Jr.?

Bradley: Don’t look so surprised! Surely you all knew Bradley H. Lester, Sr. had another son! I’ve been away for a long while, but I have come back to reclaim my father’s empire and transform it into this! Welcome, one and all, to the new era of the Lester Corporation. You are standing in front of our brand new arena, specially built to televise the new approach to the wrestling industry my father built 25 years ago. This is LWR: Lester’s Wrestling Renaissance! That’s right! This is a renaissance; a new birth for professional wrestling. And now please allow me to introduce the men and women who will change the face of the industry before your very eyes!

The doors of the arena open again to reveal an entire roster of new wrestling talent, led by famed wrestling trainer Takahiro Noburu.

Bradley: These new specimens of extraordinary wrestling ability will rescue the Lester Corporation from the stagnation of its dull, routine, uninspiring slugfests and usher in a new paradigm in this sport! We will rescue the viewers who have thirsted for more and been given none under my brother. We will satisfy their viewing desires and give them even more. And, most importantly, Otto, we are buying you out! The Lester Corporation has always stood for wrestling alone, and that is how it will remain!

Otto: And how exactly are you going to buy us out? For the last year my company has soared under the innovative new products brought to us by my board of directors here! How could you possibly afford to buy us out?

Bradley: Soared? Plateaued, I think, is the phrase you should be using. I admit that many of your inventions might have helped someone somewhere, but to the rest of the world the Lester Corporation means wrestling! But if it’s a debate you want, a debate we’ll have. Take your place, brother!

Bradley gestures towards a stage area with a pair of podiums, one bearing the Lester Corporation logo and the names of the various products Otto is producing, and the other also bearing the Lester Corporation logo and the LWR logo. Otto and Bradley take their places behind their respective podiums.

Otto: Well, I don’t feel I have to defend myself here. Over the last year I have produced dozens of new products and doubled the revenue of the Lester Corporation. Wrestling has had its day. The Corporation needs to move forward, not backward. These new products are the future of this company. This debate is already won. How on earth can you hope to top my contribution to the company? You just disappeared for a year.

Bradley: That’s right, brother, but I didn’t slouch, as you might have assumed. I have been all over the world scouting out brand new potential talent for LWR.

Otto: Well, now we know what you did with your half of the business! Wasting our father’s money on jetsetting all over the world for this shower? And you still haven’t enlightened us on how you’ll actually buy me out. Surely you must be in debt after this waste of time and money you called recruitment. How you gonna do it, Bradley?

Bradley: One word, brother… Sponsorship!

Otto: Sponsorship?! Who on earth would sponsor this dying industry?

Jared: Someone who wants to see this future for wrestling that Mr. Lester promises. In that case, I would, for one, sir!

Otto: Jared Nash! I should have known! You were always the most stubborn one on the board, and now you turn traitor!

Jared: Not only traitor, Otto, but defector! I’ll take my contributions and share of revenue and transfer it all to Bradley!

Otto: Still… one sponsor does not an effective buyout make, brother!

Bradley: I never mentioned only having one sponsor, Otto! There are a great many companies that can benefit from having their products shown on LWR television, and here they all are!

Bradley tears off the black banner that was wrapped around his podium to show an extensive list of all LWR’s sponsors.

Bradley: Wrestling schools, ring gear tailors, engineers, printing companies, pyrotechnicians, merchandising companies, even hardware stores. They can all boost their businesses with the exposure they’ll get on LWR. And now I can add Mr. Nash’s chain-link manufacturing plant to the list. I’m sure that’ll come in very useful!

Otto: Well, then, brother… You’ve shown me that you have the wherewithal to buy my company out, but you haven’t considered one thing… I’m not selling! And I’m certainly not selling out to some two-bit wrestling company that’s going to screw us into the ground like our father did! And I definitely won’t---

Bradley: How would you like to win back both my and Mr. Nash’s portions of the company, with interest?

Otto: Then the Lester Corporation will only belong to me?

Bradley: All of it!

Otto: But why do you say ‘win’?

Bradley: Because there is only one way to settle this… in the ring!

Otto: You’re not seriously suggesting I put my company on the line in a WRESTLING MATCH?

Bradley: Isn’t that the way it’s done? It’s tradition, you know… But don’t worry… You have wrestlers on your board, I have wrestlers on my side… Choose your champion and let’s compete for the entire company! If you win, you get all the money I got from the sponsors, including my half of the company and the portion belonging to Mr. Nash. If I win… All I actually want is the full right to the Lester Corporation name. You can carry on trading, Otto, but not as the Lester Corporation. How does that sound?  
Otto looks over his board of still-muscular, veteran wrestlers, and then at Bradley’s new recruits. The video shows a rookie Abdhala Qadir next to James Nash, who has been joined by his older brother Jared, as well as Logan Miles in colourful clothing with his arm around a Japanese woman in equally loud attire, and several other faces now very familiar with LWR fans. However, at this early stage of LWR they all look very young and green compared to Otto Lester’s board of directors.

Bradley: I’ll even let you choose first.

Otto doesn’t even hesitate.

Otto: Ed Kennedy!

One of the largest of the board steps forward and crosses his arms as he stands next to Otto.

Bradley: I take it you accept, so I will now make my choice... Remember, Otto, that strength alone doesn’t make a wrestler. You also need skill, cunning… and, above all, a willingness to take risks. On my travels, I came across Takahiro Noburu’s wrestling school in Japan and I was blown away with the potential talent I saw. It isn’t about size or strength… Wrestling is about self-improvement, taking risks, and, most importantly, having a heart for the business. This is why I choose my champion to be… Abdhala Qadir!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The video cuts to the brand new ring inside the LWR Arena. Abdhala Qadir is in one corner, breathing deeply and preparing herself for this new challenge. The more seasoned Ed Kennedy is playing to the crowd, but there is a definite hint of anger mixed with concern on his face; intergender wrestling was not practised under the old Lester Corporation regime, and Qadir looks tiny next to Kennedy’s impressive physique. As they face each other in the ring’s centre, despite Qadir being quite tall, the size difference sends chills through the audience of journalists and specially-invited sponsors and long-time fans. Veteran referee Tim White rings the bell and the two wrestlers circle each other in the ring.  
The first grapple begins with a mercy-hold, and Kennedy uses his weight advantage to drive Qadir back into the ropes, a signature opening move for him. He usually follows this up with a shoulder charge to the ribs and an uppercut across the chest, but after the former he is reluctant to hit Qadir so hard, and in his hesitation she connects with an elbow strike below the left ear. Qadir grabs the arm of the staggering Kennedy and twists it around into an arm wrench, forcing him to double over. She then delivers a few kicks to the shoulder and a knee to the chest before taking the big man off his feet with a headscissors takedown.

They lock up again in the middle of the ring. Once again, Kennedy’s strength advantage works in his favour, and he is able to work the lock-up into a headlock on Qadir. He Irish Whips Qadir to the ropes, after which his next move is usually a standing lariat on the opponent’s rebound, but his wrestling principles strike him again and he falters, allowing Qadir to duck under his arm, rebound off the opposite ropes and dropkick him in the back, propelling Kennedy halfway across the ring. He lands with his chest on the middle rope, after which Qadir runs and jumps on his back, driving the rope into his throat.

Otto is livid with this blatant disregard for rules involving the use of the ring ropes and goes to appeal to the referee, but Bradley stops him, saying that this is the new style of wrestling he is pushing. Otto returns to his corner in utter disgust with this ‘new style’, but he is still confident in the raw power of Ed Kennedy. Meanwhile, Kennedy has recovered and, in an attempt to end the match quickly, applied his armbar finishing move to Qadir, in which he steps over his opponent and stretches their arm through his legs and across his thigh for additional pressure. Qadir is in severe pain from this move, but her training under Noburu has taught her to always be looking for a way out of a submission, and to exploit a weak spot; Qadir notices that Kennedy’s weight is centred on only one leg, while his other leg is applying the pressure to her arm. Using her free arm, she lands a series of elbow strikes on Kennedy’s right calf muscle, and eventually he is forced to break the hold as his leg gives way beneath him. As he rolls on the mat, clutching his leg, Qadir kicks him in the side, forcing him to roll onto the other side and expose his back, after which she bounces off the ropes and lands a baseball slide dropkick right to the small of Kennedy’s back.

Kennedy rolls out of the ring and goes to his corner, trying to nurse both his leg and back at the same time. Otto comes over and gets right in his face.

Otto: Are you TRYING to lose us this match? Are you really trying to lose us this company we rescued from the trash dump? Why the bloody hell are you holding back? Look at her! She isn’t!

Kennedy: I’m sorry, boss… I just can’t hit a woman. Your dad wouldn’t ever allow mixed wrestling!

Otto: (pointing at Bradley) Is HE my father? He doesn’t want or allow the same things as my father. He welcomes mixed wrestling! He doesn’t want you to hold back, and neither does she! Look at her, though! She’s a third your size! You can take her easily… Just… Just forget she’s a woman, go in there and end this!

Kennedy: I can’t forget, sir! I could crush her!

Otto: Then crush her. Forget she’s a woman and crush her!

Kennedy: But, sir!

Otto: FORGET SHE’S A WOMAN!

Kennedy looks inside the ring, where Qadir is just sitting calmly, waiting for her opponent. In the back of his mind, he takes a giant mental pencil and draws one of his major male rivals in her place.

He rolls back into the ring and turns to the corner where Qadir has been sitting, but she is now nowhere to be seen. He looks up just in time to receive a flying clothesline across his shoulders that flattens him to the mat. Qadir follows up with a springboard moonsault and pins him down, but the count is interrupted almost immediately as Kennedy lifts her off him with ease. Qadir waits for Kennedy to get up and then goes in for another charge, but he easily lifts her up over his head, then drops her ribs-first onto his knee. He rebounds off the ropes and connects with a running splash, but Qadir manages to roll her shoulder out of the pin after two counts. Kennedy is getting extremely frustrated, and goes for another running splash, but this time Qadir rolls out of the way and Kennedy’s chest and stomach slam hard into the mat. He stays on all fours for a time, massaging his ribs, but Qadir has learned not to give him any recovery time, and delivers a running dropkick to the side of his head. She then climbs up to the top turnbuckle and is about to leap off when he springs up, plucks her from the top rope and powerslams her to the canvas.

Kennedy seems to have dispensed with all his previous inhibitions as he pulls Qadir up by the head, lands a few elbow strikes of his own and Irish whips her to the ropes. She manages to grab onto the top rope to break her momentum, but as she leaps forward to attempt a flying elbow strike he takes her down hard with the lariat he missed before. He picks her up again and whips her to the corner, then crushes Qadir against the turnbuckle pads with an almighty corner splash. Qadir hangs off the top rope, dazed and unable to stop a running shoulder charge to her ribs. Kennedy backs up again for another charge, but with a last burst of energy Qadir lifts herself up to the top turnbuckle and the shoulder ends up smashing straight into the steel ringpost. Kennedy reels back, massaging his shoulder, but Qadir is too breathless at this time to follow up with a move of her own, so she props herself up against the bottom pad to recover. Kennedy sees her in her vulnerable position and charges again, this time hoping to land a running big boot to the face, but Qadir slides downwards and out of the corner through his legs, and he ends up straddling the bottom turnbuckle pad.

He lies there for a while, alternately clutching both his leg and his hurt shoulder, and Qadir begins to see her opening. She climbs gingerly to the top turnbuckle, then connects with a diving double foot stomp to the injured shoulder of Kennedy. She locks in a front headlock as he stands up, pulls him to the middle of the ring, then slaps on the same armbar submission that Kennedy had used on her. However, as soon as Kennedy appears that he is about to try the same method of breaking the hold as Qadir had used before, in a single fluid movement she shifts her weight from the pivoting leg, hooks said leg around Kennedy’s neck and flips him over so that they are both on their backs, Qadir still holding tightly to his arm and injured shoulder. She then applies a legscissor on his arm so that he cannot escape the hold. The combined pain of the armbar and the bruised shoulder cause Kennedy to tap out furiously, and Bradley climbs into the ring to celebrate with Qadir and collects the exclusivity contract from the referee. Otto begrudgingly signs the rights to the Lester Corporation name over to his brother and storms towards the door with the rest of his board of directors, not even turning back to check on the disgraced Kennedy. One of his board is left staring at the ring, but Otto hisses at him to come along.

Board Member: But, Mr. Lester, my brother…

Otto: Leave him, Spencer!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Qadir: That was the moment when LWR really began. Within just two short weeks, fans were notified, shows are written and broadcast, and the Lester Corporation was reborn as Lester’s Wrestling Renaissance. And as Mr. Lester had promised, it kick-started a new era of wrestling which surpassed and dominated the old-school style for decades to come. But Otto Lester was only the first obstacle. We all had great battles to overcome, both in the name of the new wrestling paradigm and our own personal battles too…

Paige: Which is precisely what this show is all about! Please join us, wrestling fans, in the next part of this wrestling series to hear the full story of Lester’s Wrestling Renaissance!

To be continued in Chapter 2: The Ascension of (Wo)man


	2. The Ascension of Wo(man)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Abdhala Qadir's first story tells of her early fight for gender equality in wrestling, including allowing women to challenge for all Championship belts. But the new policy has its detractors, and soon Qadir is facing one of her strongest enemies so far.

Paige: So, Abdhala, let’s hear a story from you first. Now, you’ve inspired up-and-coming female wrestlers for the last few decades with your hard-hitting and high-flying style, not to mention your penchant for the weed-whacker, which you shared with Mr. Lester for a time! Even when you first joined Lester’s company, as we saw from your match with Ed Kennedy, you resisted the previously-established norm of gender-segregated wrestling…

Qadir: That’s right, and that’s what drew me to Mr. Lester in the first place; he understood exactly what I had set out to prove: that women are just as capable of holding championships traditionally awarded only to men and we didn’t need to be muscle-bound Amazonians like Chyna and Nicole Bass. When I first started out, I was this skinny little Middle-Eastern girl who nonetheless took the legs out from under Bull Nakano in her first televised match with LWR. She had a lot of respect for me after that, did Keiko. Soon I was in the running for the Women’s Championship, but I didn’t want to stop there. As I said, I wanted to challenge the male dominance of the sport, so I challenged Eddie Guerrero, the Intercontinental Champion…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A much younger Qadir is standing in the ring with Eddie Guerrero and Bradley Lester. Guerrero looks incredulous, while Qadir is equally shocked at his reaction.

Guerrero: You gonna run that by me again, ese? You mean to say that an hermana wants to challenge Latino Heat to a match for an hermano’s belt?

Qadir: I don’t see any problem with that. There’s nothing in the rules that says a woman can’t challenge for any belt she wants.

Guerrero: Well, let’s see these rules, then… homes!

Lester signals to junior referee Jonny Sutton, who takes out a very thin book from a briefcase leaning against the announce table and hands it to Lester. Lester peruses it for a moment, turns over the single page inside, gives a sly wink to Qadir, then takes the microphone from Guerrero.

Lester: According to this… pamphlet… she’s right: there really is nothing stopping her from challenging you, Guerrero… But you seem like you’d rather be a stickler for rules, so I’m going to give you a chance to make some. Next week, at St. Elmo’s Fire, you WILL defend your title against Qadir! But here’s where it’s going to be a little different: if you win, Guerrero, I’ll add that rule in. If you win, women can’t challenge for any title traditionally awarded to men. But if Qadir wins, we’ll not only keep the rule out of our books… We’ll broaden the implications of its absence even more! If you lose, Guerrero, you and the Women’s Champion have to SWITCH titles! That’s right, YOU will become the new Women’s Champion!

The audience roars their assent at Lester’s decision, and Qadir smirks at the astounded Guerrero.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Qadir: Mr. Lester really knew how to twist words around. And so it was that a week or so later, Eddie and I faced each other for the first time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the ring, Qadir and Guerrero face each other down once again. Qadir is cautiously planning all contingencies in her head, while Guerrero is noticeably calm on the outside, but on the inside he is itching to prove his point as quickly as possible. Referee Ryan Oates rings the bell and the match begins. An initial grapple shifts into a headlock by Guerrero, but Qadir counters with her now-famous legsweep and applies the scissored armbar that broke Ed Kennedy. However, Guerrero breaks the hold, and they stand and stare at each other once again.

Guerrero starts to punch Qadir several times, but she catches the last punch and twists it into a half-nelson choke. Guerrero runs towards the ropes and holds on while Qadir bounces back off, forcing her to break the hold. Guerrero rushes at Qadir, but she moves aside and monkey flips Guerrero after he rebounds off the opposite ropes. However, rather than flipping right over onto his back, Guerrero sails in the air for a moment before landing slumped over the top rope. Qadir shows off her superior agility by leaping up to the top rope. She is just about to attempt a sunset flip when Guerrero pushes her away to the outside of the ring. Qadir gets back up to the apron and Guerrero’s just about to grab her when she drives his shoulder into his ribs, then springboards off the top rope to attempt another sunset flip pin, but Guerrero keeps his footing and sits down on Qadir’s chest instead. The referee starts counting the pin, but Qadir hooks Guerrero’s arms with her legs and brings him down into a pin of her own, from which he is barely able to kick out.

They grapple in the centre of the ring again, and Guerrero is able to lock in his Three Amigos and follow it up with a running elbow drop. He goes for his Tope Atomico, but Qadir rolls to the side then applies another scissors armbar to the writhing Guerrero after his back hits the mat hard. Guerrero gets back to his feet and uses Qadir’s light weight to his advantage by lifting her clean off the mat while she is still applying the armbar and ramming her back into the turnbuckle. He kicks in the ribs a few times before climbing to the outside to fetch a steel chair. He takes the chair back into the ring and approaches the corner where he left Qadir, but she has disappeared. He looks around the apron for her, during which Qadir has crept up behind him, and she dropkicks him in the back. Guerrero drops the chair and Qadir kicks it away, before connecting with a few foot stomps to his back. However, Guerrero catches a foot stomp and locks in the Lasso From El Paso. Qadir struggles for a moment, before grabbing the bottom rope to break the hold. Guerrero finds the chair again and goes to hit Qadir’s back with it, but she rolls aside and it harmlessly clangs against the mat. He tries again, but misses as Qadir scrambles to the corner and hoists herself up to the top turnbuckle. Guerrero approaches with the chair, and Qadir leaps from the top, driving the chair into Guerrero’s face with a missile dropkick.

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Paige: Is that the first time you used that move?

Qadir: That’s right. I was really reluctant to use weapons back then… Don’t give me that look, James! I know you still carry the old weed-whacker scars! But yeah, it was only when I grew in confidence later that I started my shift into the brutal hardcore style I’m famous for now. But back then, I was a very technical wrestler; I used lots of holds and very conventional moves, but it was during that match that I decided I needed to do something memorable, something very unlike my style at the time, so I borrowed that move from RVD. Later, it became known as the S.A. Stinger Missile and it led to my nickname of the ‘Saudi Arabian Stinger’. I also added more moves under that brand, like the S.A. Stinger DDT and the S.A. Stinger Kick that Mr. Lester himself innovated into his deadly Superkick.

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Qadir grabs the reeling Guerrero and Irish whips him to the ropes, connecting with a spinning kick on the rebound. She grabs him again and pulls off two of the Three Amigos before Guerrero counters the last one due to Qadir’s slight wobble after having her legs weakened by the Lasso From El Paso. Guerrero lands back on his feet and twists Qadir’s suplex grip into a facebuster. He turns Qadir over, climbs to the top turnbuckle and connects with a Frog Splash. He covers Qadir and the referee counts the pin, but Qadir manages to kick out when the referee’s hand is less than an inch from the mat on the third count. Guerrero is furious and goes to attempt another Frog Splash, but Qadir is ready for it this time, lifting up her legs and monkey flipping Guerrero over the top rope to the outside. Qadir goes to climb to the top turnbuckle, but the crowd begins to chant for the steel chair again. She gets down and picks up the chair, and the crowd cheers louder. She holds up the chair for confirmation, to more affirmative cheers, so she climbs the turnbuckle again, this time with the chair. Guerrero is still writhing on the floor, so it gives Qadir time to think of her next tactic. Finally, she launches herself from the top turnbuckle to the outside, placing the steel chair over her back and connecting with a diving senton splash, with both the chair and her back connecting with Eddie’s midsection.

Qadir takes a few moments to recover, before placing Guerrero back in the ring and pinning him for the win. The ring announcer shouts out the result as Qadir helps Guerrero up. Qadir takes both the Intercontinental Championship and the Women’s Championship from the referee and hands the latter to Guerrero. Guerrero is reluctant to take it, but he cannot help but admire the ability of his opponent. He smiles and takes the belt, and holds out his hand to Qadir. Qadir takes his hand, and they hug and celebrate together in the ring. Guerrero then whispers something to the referee, who speaks into his headset for a moment. The referee then rings the bell and Guerrero lies down on the mat. Guerrero beckons for Qadir to pin him again. She is cautious at first, but she pins him and the referee counts the win. Guerrero hands Qadir back the Women’s Championship, and they celebrate together again.

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Qadir: That moment marked the beginning of our long partnership in both the LWR and beyond. Eddie and I were inseparable after that. We would stand in each other’s corners during our matches, and I even helped babysit his young daughters. Vickie was wary of me at first – she didn’t know me as well as people know me now – but soon she realised our relationship was purely platonic. But the issue of gender segregation in LWR was far from over. Many of the other wrestlers were not too pleased that their championships could be won by both men and women, and soon we ran into trouble with Vampiro and The Ascension. They would interfere with my Intercontinental Championship defences, and soon I lost the championship to Black Steed, Logan’s name at the time, despite additional help from Jon Heidenreich.

Miles is clearly unhappy at Qadir’s implication that he won the title purely because of outside interference.

Miles: Uso...

Qadir fires him a dangerous look, which shuts him up instantly, before continuing her story.

Qadir: But soon, we had other things to think about. The LWR Championship became an option for Eddie, and we decided to help him with that as best we could. The biggest pay-per-view of the year, Flames of War, was coming up, and Eddie was due to face Bradshaw for the championship, so Heidenreich and I challenged Vampiro and The Ascension to a Falls Count Anywhere Elimination Handicap Match at the same event. The match was brutal, and soon it was down to just me and Vampiro...

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Qadir is lying on the floor, clutching her ribs, as a bloodied Heidenreich is led away by a team of referees. Vampiro is not in great shape, either, and his facepaint is beginning to run as the blood flows from his forehead. The car park of the LWR Arena in Kingston, Jamaica is littered with broken weapons, and one of the cars has a large and bloody dent in it.

Qadir and Vampiro approach each other and exchange some punches. Qadir catches a punch, takes down Vampiro and applies her signature scissored armbar, but Vampiro quickly wrenches his arm out and rolls away, putting some distance between himself and his opponent. Qadir gets to her feet and goes after him, but Vampiro grabs a kendo stick and whips Qadir in the injured ribs, and again in the back after she doubles over. Vampiro picks up the reeling Qadir and backs her into the side of a car. After a few strikes to the face and abdomen, he presses a steel chair into Qadir’s hands and backs up for a shoulder charge that would crush her against the car door. However, Qadir manages to throw the chair back into Vampiro’s face as he charges and, while he is dazed, she delivers a DDT that drives his forehead straight into the chair. As Qadir is getting to her feet again, she spots a flapping tarpaulin on the back of a flatbed truck, and, on removing it, she finds a cargo of folded wooden tables. She takes one from the truck, sets it up and places Vampiro on it before grabbing the chair and climbing up to the top of the cab of the truck. She launches herself off the cab in a re-enactment of the S.A. Stinger Senton that secured her victory against Eddie Guerrero, but Vampiro is able to roll off the table just in time, sending Qadir crashing through the table and landing with her back on the chair at the same time.

As Qadir is writhing on the floor from the pain of her back and the previously bruised ribs, Vampiro spots the door to a staircase that would take him up and out of the car park, presumably out of harm’s way, so he begins to run towards it. However, just as he is about to reach the door, a scraping sound heralds the approach of the chair being skimmed across the floor of the car park, and accidentally stepping on the chair sends Vampiro skidding over. Qadir, the thrower of the chair, is on her feet now and starts running towards Vampiro, who finds a length of rope on the floor near his elbow and, stretching it taut between his hands, proceeds to literally clothesline the approaching Qadir to the floor. He then climbs on top of her and begins choking her with the rope, an act during which, while the move itself is not against the minimal rules of LWR, the referee is allowed to intervene at their discretion, and he does. Qadir uses this momentary distraction to grab Vampiro around the neck with her legs and apply a scissored choke, but a quick elbow to the still smarting ribs allows Vampiro to escape the hold with ease, and he follows up by laying out Qadir with a steel chair blow as she is standing up, before continuing his flight up the stairwell with the rope and chair in hand.

Qadir is fuming at this point, and she is soon on his tail. Vampiro runs up the stairs, but surprisingly he does not stop when he reaches the lobby, and instead continues upwards. He races up the last set of stairs to the roof and Qadir tears after him, but, just before he reaches the roof door, he turns and gives Qadir a big boot to the face, knocking her down a few steps before she manages to break her fall by grabbing hold of the railings. Vampiro then goes through the door and locks it shut behind him. After taking some time to recover from the fall, Qadir kicks the door open and steps out onto the roof, but she is barely able to get her bearings when a second big boot sends her crashing into the door and tearing it clean off its hinges. Vampiro tries to pick Qadir up, but the match has weakened him too much, and he is only able to lay her on top of the broken door. He takes the rope he has brought with him and ties one end to the door handle, before setting about dragging the door and Qadir across the roof of the arena, stopping only when he reaches the lip of the building, below which one can see the shining glass ceiling of the Atrium. He then takes the chair and waits for Qadir to stand up.

When she finally does, he charges and attempts to flatten her one last time with the chair, but Qadir runs towards him and ducks under the swung weapon. Vampiro halts his charge just as he teeters on the edge of the building, and he flails about for a moment as he tries to get his balance back. When he finally achieves this, he turns back towards Qadir, clutching the chair to his chest, only to receive a powerful thrust kick to the chest through the chair, sending him over the edge and through the glass ceiling to the Atrium below. Qadir is in great pain now from her shoulders, ribs and back, but she manages to fashion a makeshift harness from Vampiro’s rope, and lowers herself down to the Atrium. She collapses on the floor as she lands, but slowly crawls towards the supine and immobile Vampiro, and drapes herself across him just as the referee finishes his exhausting bound down the stairwell to count the pin. One… Two… Three…

As soon as the bell rings, medical staff appear from several doors at once to tend to the cuts and bruises of the remaining competitors of the Handicap Match. Some paramedics remove the catatonic body of Vampiro from the glassy wreckage and carry him to a locker room, while others sit Qadir in a soft chair and apply ice and pressure to her bruised muscles and cuts. Qadir’s mind is only on the upcoming match between Eddie Guerrero and John ‘Bradshaw’ Layfield, but the medical team refuse to allow her to move until they have finished given her medical attention after her gruelling match.

Fifteen minutes later, a patched-up Qadir is led by a small group of referees and medical staff to the backstage area and out to the ring through the crowd. They shield her from the fans as they step over the barrier before sitting Qadir down in one of the commentators’ chairs that was respectfully offered to her by Sean Pomeroy, the play-by-play commentator. Despite the nagging pain she is in, Qadir manages to observe the moment in which Eddie lands the Frog Splash and pins JBL for the LWR Championship. Eddie is handed the belt by the referee and kneels for a moment in disbelief and prayer, before turning to see the proud and smiling face of his best friend Qadir, who has been helped into the ring and propped up against a turnbuckle. Qadir endures the pain of a hug from her hermano, before Heidenreich appears and lifts Eddie up onto his shoulders as they celebrate in the ring together…

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Qadir: That was the first but certainly not the last major Championship that made its way into my LWR family. Eddie promised on that day that he would never lose the LWR Championship until I would be able to challenge him for it; the first woman to challenge for a major Championship in LWR. And he kept that promise… Maybe sometime we’ll see that match too!

To be continued in Chapter 3: Between Brock and a Dark Place


	3. Between Brock and a Dark Place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James Nash's MMA rivalry with Brock Lesnar spills over into LWR, with the two big men fighting tooth and nail to prove who is the greatest fighter-turned-wrestler. However, a moment of serious misconduct on Lesnar's part awakens in Nash a terrible, violent streak that will shake LWR for years to come.

Paige: So, James, let’s talk to you next. You were discovered, with your brother’s help, at Takahiro Noburu’s wrestling school in Sapporo, Japan, like many of your colleagues.

Nash: Yeah, that’s right.

Paige: But wrestling wasn’t your first outing into combat sports, was it? You were actually a two-time MMA heavyweight champion before you even set foot in a wrestling ring, and it was actually MMA that inspired many of the moves that we’ve come to associate with your wrestling style.

Nash: Yeah, I first went into Japan’s MMA circuit when I was 18 and I was considered one of the best in the ring. As you said, Paige, I won two major championships during my time. If it wasn’t for that one slip-up it could’ve been just one championship and an undefeated streak, but you can’t have everything… Anyhow, my greatest achievement in the whole of my time in MMA was when I won my first championship. I beat this guy called Brock Lesnar, who was about the same age as me and dumb as sheet rock… That said, he was a real tough guy and it took about twenty minutes to finally get a TKO. We shook after the match and we remained pretty good buddies for my remaining time in MMA. After the business folded, my brother Jared, who was a really popular wrestler for the Lester Corporation, did a bit of negotiation with Lester Sr.’s developmental territory run by Takahiro Noburu, and I became a wrestler right there and then. Of course, the rest of the story of my wrestling training and my new start in LWR is history, and we talked all about that at the start of the show.

Paige: Yep, and I’m not mistaken you entered the running for the Intercontinental Championship very early, and you held it for a good long while. That is, until a familiar face made an appearance in LWR and challenged you for the belt.

Nash: Yeah… After a couple years of being good buddies, Brock Lesnar finally showed his real bitter side and challenged me! Mr. Lester saw it as a great chance to exhibit how MMA and wrestling could come together into a cohesive style, so he approved the match and I had to defend my championship against the big lump. I thought, wrongly I must say, that Lesnar had no wrestling experience and he wouldn’t be able to defend himself against my new wrestling techniques… Turned out he’d gone to a wrestling school as well, and his giant size helped ease his transition into a very powerful wrestler himself. Seemed we were pretty evenly-matched, so our bout was just as back-and-forth, with no man giving an inch to the other, as it was way back in MMA, and it went on for about as long. In the twentieth minute, I was just about to give him my finishing submission move when he suddenly just leapt up and hit me with that… move of this… that F-5… thing… Next thing I knew, I was flat on my back and the referee was counting the pin, and I just couldn’t move, out of shock mostly.

Paige: So you lost the Intercontinental Championship to Lesnar that day, but you were contractually entitled to your rematch to reclaim the belt. We all remember how that ended, but how were you feeling during the match?

Nash: It was a weird one, I have to say. I couldn’t believe the guy beat me, first off, and I was desperate to get the belt back… I suppose as a result of that and how cocky Lesnar got after he beat me, the whole thing was much more frenzied, much more brutal, and after a while we ended up outside the ring, and even later than that we’d jumped the barrier and we were fighting in the crowd…

Paige: I hate to interrupt you there, James, but I’m sure the audience here would like to relive the event first-hand, so we’re going to roll the video of how that match ended…

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The video shows the two men facing each other in a large circle formed by the fans. Both men have been busted open and their faces are red with blood. The blood from Lesnar’s forehead is trickling down into his eyes, making it very difficult for him to see his opponent. He lumbers towards a shape that looks like Nash, but Nash takes advantage of his impaired opponent by laying him out with a Polish hammer to the chest. Lesnar gets up and tries to blink the blood from his eye, only to be flattened again by a big boot to the face. Lesnar is becoming extremely frustrated, and he charges, blinded and enraged, at the first Nash-shaped blur he sees, grabs them and connects with his devastating finishing move, the F-5…

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Nash: … The only problem was, it wasn’t me he did that to! Brock Lesnar had grabbed a fan and done that terrible move on a guy with no wrestling training and no idea how to prepare himself for it. Next thing Lesnar knew, the match had been stopped and the kid was surrounded by E.M.T.s trying to hold his nose and jaw together long enough to get him into the ambulance. As he was being taken out, he was just able to wave in my direction before passing out. That’s when I just lost it! I went up to Lesnar as he was being tended to by the medics and just started whaling on him till Jared had to come from the back and pull me off. He kept trying to calm me down, but I was just so mad! They had to take Lesnar away to the hospital as well before I could get back my senses. Jared said that Mr. Lester had stripped Lesnar of the Intercontinental Championship and once he was better we could face off for it. That week of waiting was hell for me! I couldn’t contain my rage at what Lesnar did to that kid, and I got through thousands of dollars of training equipment; I was so angry, I kept breaking stuff. It was like something was taking over me, something that wanted to get revenge for the kid, whatever it took, preferably with as much pain for Lester as possible. Finally, Lesnar was able to come back to LWR and at the pay-per-view we faced off for the Intercontinental Championship again…

Paige: We’re going to head back to the video now. I’d like to warn viewers of a nervous disposition that this video may disturb you… Although if you are of a nervous disposition it might be a good idea to turn your attention away from LWR altogether!

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No sooner has the bell rung for the Championship match than James Nash begins to assault Brock Lesnar with brutal zeal. The first swing of a stiff punch to the face knocks Lesnar to the mat immediately, and it is only after a few more punches that Lesnar is able to kick his attacker away and get to his feet. However, Nash takes Lesnar down again with a shoulder charge, pulls him back to his feet by the arm, lands another charge to the ribs, then applies an arm wrench and knocks Lesnar to his knees with a clubbing elbow to the shoulders. Following this, an Irish whip leads to Lesnar flying over Nash’s knee as it rises to beat him in the ribs on the rebound.

As the match continues, so does the relentless physical assault on Lesnar. An Irish whip to the ropes would be followed immediately by a shoulder charge against said ropes; a whip into the corner preludes a flurry of punches to the ribs and elbow strikes to the face; a big boot to the face heralds a series of stomps and sometimes a big splash to a Lesnar lying on the mat. Occasionally, Lesnar is able to strike back with a powerslam or a roundhouse kick of his own, but this grants him only a few moments of recovery before Nash is back on his case. Soon enough, Lesnar is in a bruised and bloodied state, but still Nash continues his onslaught.

The camera cuts to the subterranean car park, where a large station wagon is pulling up. The front passenger is revealed to be Jared Nash, and he is returning from a recruitment drive for new young talent from all over the world to bring to LWR. He and the driver begin to help the new recruits with their bags before his attention is drawn to one of the TV screens dotted all over the arena so no one will miss a second of the action in the ring. On the screen, he sees the bloody wreck of Brock Lesner with James towering over him, dealing blow after heavy blow to his back and head, then Irish whipping him to the corner and striking him over and over again with stomps to the face, shoulders, chest and ribs. He immediately drops the bag he is carrying and dashes out of the car park towards the ring area, shouting his profuse apologies over his shoulder to the cheery-faced blonde girl in the tomboyish suit and trilby hat whose bag it was.

When he arrives at ringside, the crowd are beginning to look very distressed. Several children are crying at the sight of the vicious beatdown in the ring, and some fans are starting to leave. Jared tries to stop the match, but the referee unless there is a decision. Jared climbs up to the apron and and shouts to his brother.

Jared: Jim! Dammit, Jim! End it! End it now!

James does not give any indication of having acknowledged Jared’s presence at ringside, but something deep down must have heard his brother’s plea because, without missing a beat, James ceases his blows to Lesnar’s back and applies his finishing move, a camel clutch with a full-nelson hold, putting pressure on the back and shoulders simultaneously. Lesnar has long since been rendered unconscious, but the referee is unable to give a TKO result unless a submission move is applied. He rings the bell as soon as the move is slapped on, but Nash keeps hold of Lesnar, wishing to cause as much damage as possible. Lesnar’s shoulders are just about to become dislocated when Jared leaps into the ring, grabs his brother and applies his own finishing hold, the Half-Nelson Sleeper, which finally manages to knock James out and allows Jared to carry his unconscious brother back to the locker rooms. The referee chases after Jared with the Intercontinental Championship, but Jared just gives him an incredulous look and pushes past him, leaving the belt in the bewildered referee’s hands and the ring announcer with no idea on how to announce the winner of the match. Jared takes James into his locker room and dumps him on the camp bed that he has set up for when he has to stay in the arena overnight. On the TV screen in his room he sees the medical team carrying away the battered mess of Brock Lesnar. He stands in the doorway and watches them wheel the gurney along the corridor. At the end of the passage, he sees the new recruits go past on their way to enrol with Takahiro Noburu’s training school. The blonde-haired girl from earlier sees him and waves cheerily as she walks past with a similar-looking girl in a summer dress. Jared smiles reluctantly, then looks at his unconscious brother on the bed and breaks down in tears…

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Nash has become very quiet during the review of the footage from the match, and he is rendered speechless by his actions even in his early days and the full extent of his assault on Brock Lesnar, so much so that he is unable to respond when Paige Pomeroy inquires about the aftermath to the match, so Abdhala Qadir has to answer for him.

Qadir: Jared Nash was a senior member of LWR staff, so he completely refused to allow James to accept the belt, so it stayed vacant for a good long while until Eddie finally won it in a tournament. This wasn’t the end of this strange vicious side we saw in James, though, and it would take many forms and affect all of us over the course of LWR’s tenure…

To be continued in Chapter 4: Miles Behind


	4. Miles Behind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan Miles regales us with the glorious story of his early days as the world's greatest wrestling superhero: the daring jumps, the dashing smile, the swooning fans... and the carnage left in his wake due to his inexperience at aerial moves. After one such move causes an opponent a serious injury, Abdhala Qadir has to step in with the time-honoured rebuke, 'What the hell, hero?'

Paige: Now, we finally come to the performer who has had, to say the least, the most changeable wrestling career of all three of our guests on this very special show. I am, of course, talking about the one-man gimmick encyclopaedia himself, Logan Miles!

At this, Miles arrogantly stands up, hands raised, to a few sparse claps from one corner of the audience and a curiously passionate silence from everywhere else.

Miles: Suit your damn selves!

Paige: … Thank you, Logan… Now, like the others here, your story also began with being recruited from Tak…

Miles: Yeah, yeah, yeah… From Takahiro Noburu’s wrestling school, yeah, yeah, yeah, like everyone else, yeah… We all came from there, so do you really need to keep saying it? So what can I say about old Nobby? … He didn’t like me much.

Paige: Oh, really?

She, Qadir and Nash manage to look completely unsurprised. Miles doesn’t pick up on this and continues to tell his story.

Miles: True enough, he often said I had real natural ring ability, but he always used to go on and on and on about stuff like... finesse… respect for your opponents… honouring the scripted spots for the bums on seats – all that robotic mumbo jumbo. ‘You have to do it this way, that way, the other way, or you could seriously hurt your opponent.’ I’m sorry, mate, but this is wrestling; this is how you win! Your opponents are supposed to be the ones learning how to fall correctly, aren’t they? All I have to do is make the throw, and it’s up to them to do the rest!

Qadir: And then you were specialising in technical wrestling, you were able to get away with your impulsive moves, but when you turned to…

Miles: Oi, Qadir! You’ve had your chance to tell your story. It’s my turn now, so back off!

 

Qadir catches Nash’s eye and shakes her head in exasperation. Nash silently mouths, ‘Some things never change!’ back to her, and she raises her eyebrows and rolls her eyes in agreement.

Miles: But yeah, I was a great mat wrestler, wasn’t I? But soon I got really bored with that. I’d seen people gushing over the high-flying wrestlers like the ones in Mexico and Japan and saying they’re just like superheroes somehow, and I know that’s what I wanted to be! A superhero! Someone that people would love and respect in return for me coming to save their sorry arses.

Paige: And I suppose from that you’d get come sense of fulfilment…

Miles: Yes, pride and glory, exactly… For ME! So I decided back in Japan that I’d become the best superhero wrestler in the world. Thing is, I had so many ideas for what kind of superhero I’d be, I couldn’t stick to one decision at any one time… so I came up with ingenious idea of having a different gimmick every week. We had a few ring gear tailors on our list of sponsors, so I bloody made sure they did their jobs! Each time I had an idea I got on the phone to them to tell them what I wanted…

Qadir: Yeah… Though that wasn’t actually in their remit as sponsors, was it? They weren’t just there to serve you whenever you snapped your fingers. And let me also point out that it was Aki who came up with a lot of those ideas of yours…

Miles: Don’t mention the name of that BITCH in front of me!

He leaps to his feet and attempts to intimidate Qadir, who just smiles at him sweetly yet patronisingly until he sits down again.

Miles: Baka-yarou… But yeah, after I became a superhero I added lots of aerial moves into my matches.

Paige: That’s right, so let’s have a look at a video montage of some of these moves and how they complemented your new image. We’ll also see a few of your gimmick ideas in action!

The video begins with Logan Miles in costume as his first ever superhero gimmick, Fast Speeder, with his Japanese girlfriend Aki, also in costume as Shoot-Mooner, on his arm. After a few seconds of posing in silence, with epic choral music playing in the background, he suddenly thrusts out his right arm in a karate-style punch while keeping the other hand in the ‘ready’ position at his side.

Fast Speeder: Faasuto Supiidaaaaaa! IKUZEEEE! (Let’s go!)

Shoot-Mooner: Shuuto-Muunaaaaaa...........

Fast Speeder shoots her a disapproving look.

Shoot-Mooner: Nande mo nai… (Never mind)

In the studio, Logan Miles is nodding in approval as the video begins to show a montage of his superhero poses, catchphrases and even dances, backed by cheesy synthesiser music, but then the video begins to flicker and change; the footage speeds up, as do the voices as they become a chipmunk-like squeak, and the music is replaced by the Benny Hill theme tune, also known as ‘Yackety Sax’. Miles sits in stunned silence as the audience, along with Paige, Qadir and Nash, howl with laughter. Miles makes his own howl with rage as he gets up and goes to pound on the TV screen, but before he is able to get there the footage changes back to the epic music, with a clip of Fast Speeder preparing for an aerial move. Miles goes to sit back down, scowling at Qadir and Nash as they struggle to regain their composure.

Miles: Here it is! Here’s the part where we all get to see how great I was at aerial moves!

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In reality, the video shows Miles botching all his aerial moves and seriously injuring his opponents: Fast Speeder’s diving moonsault ends with both knees crushing John Morrison’s ribs; a poorly calculated Tiger Bomb from the top turnbuckle by Power GET! Man results in Lodi’s head bouncing off all three turnbuckle pads on the way down; a 450 Splash by Man the Kid results in one knee colliding with Chavo Guerrero’s head; Black Steed’s diving double foot stomp snaps Carlito Caribbean Cool’s leg in two as he misses the chest entirely; Power Violence’s hurricanrana from the top turnbuckle doesn’t release the leg hold in time and ends up putting immense strain on Rob Van Dam’s neck. The video shows Miles in his Flyer GET! Boy persona standing over the unconscious bodies of his injured opponents as he does his catchphrase. A new montage shows team upon team of emergency medical staff rushing to the ring; some paramedics check Chavo Guerrero for concussion, others apply neck braces to Rob Van Dam and Lodi; still more carry off an agonised Carlito Caribbean Cool on a stretcher.

The video switches back to the scene of devastation around Flyer GET! Boy, and the camera suddenly zooms in on a young woman with red hair lying completely still. The name ‘Lydia Redding’ flashes across the bottom of the screen before it cuts to a match between this girl and Flyer GET! Boy. Redding has just kicked Flyer in the ribs to double him over, and she bounces off the ropes to deliver her signature tornado DDT on the rebound when Flyer manages to grab hold of her and reverse the move into a flapjack slam. Lydia is left lying on her front as Flyer climbs to the top turnbuckle. The crowd can see what’s about to happen and they turn their faces away; it is not going to look good. However, Flyer, still blissfully unaware of the full extent of the injuries he has caused to many a wrestler in his wake due to his inexperience at aerial moves, plans his move. He leaps from the top turnbuckle and connects with a senton bomb right across Redding’s upper back. Flyer flips Redding over and secures the pin before walking away in triumph over yet another opponent.

However, Redding appears unresponsive after the pin, and when the referee comes to check on her, he sees that she is having trouble breathing and even moving her arms. The medical team rush in from their now-permanent seats at ringside during a Logan Miles match, and they delicately move Redding onto a stretcher before rushing her up the ramp to a waiting ambulance outside the arena.

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The video cuts to the next week on LWR, where Jared Nash is shown sitting at the commentary desk with play-by-play commentator Sean Pomeroy.

Pomeroy: Mr. Nash, we’ve had Lydia Redding on our minds all week after the shocking result of her match against Flyer GET! Boy. Obviously, we hope she can make a full recovery, but we don’t know the full extent of her injuries, and we were hoping you could shed some light on her condition here today.

Nash: Before I begin, I just want to thank everyone for their concern over Miss Redding’s injuries… I’m very dismayed to let you all know that in her match last week she suffered… a broken back.

The audience fall silent.

Nash: The prognosis is very bad… The badly-judged move by Flyer GET! Boy has damaged her spinal column beyond repair. As a result, it’s highly unlikely that she will ever regain full mobility again, and her wrestling career is most certainly over…

Front row fan: And what are you gonna do about Miles?

Nash: Logan Miles, or whatever name he’s going under this week… His case is being discussed between myself, Mr. Lester and Mr. Usher over the next week… While he will compete tonight, it’s highly likely that he will be suspended indefinitely, or at least until such time as he has returned to wrestling training in order to shape up his style…

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The video fades, and Miles is fuming.

Miles: Right! Who the hell changed my video?! It was supposed to show the highlights of my superhero wrestling!

Qadir: And if there were any highlights there might have been a video! You’re not satisfied that we just watched all your victories as a superhero? There they were, all your ‘highlights’! And yes, you were lucky people like Chavo, Morrison, RVD were able to return after what you did to them!

Miles: What I did?! They were the ones who didn’t prepare for the move properly!

Qadir: No, they prepared for the move they were expecting! And they were expecting a move that was done well! But you never actually trained in high-flying moves at Noburu-sensei’s school, did you? You didn’t know what the bloody hell you were doing!

Miles: Baka-yarou…

Qadir: Urusei! No, this isn’t the video you made, it’s one that I made, to finally get the message into your thick skull that you were the most incompetent wrestler I ever had the misfortune to work with, and on top of that, you’re an ungrateful git!

Miles: Incompetent? Ungrateful? This coming from Little Miss Women’s-World-Who-Needs-Male-Wrestlers-Burn-Your-Bra? I’ve had enough of your preaching, your whining about social injustice, defending bloody Aki and kissing up to Lester!

He grabs the water pitcher from the table and is about to swing it at Qadir when James Nash yanks it out of his hand with one massive arm and pins Miles’ arms to his side with the other before speaking in a very low but calm voice.

Nash: Now you can either get over yourself and keep on telling your story, or maybe The Gaoler might decide he wants to talk to you himself.

At this, Miles stops struggling and Nash lets him go, but rather than continue his story he storms off the set and sits down in the green room for a while.

Paige: Well, viewers, we don’t really need Logan to continue this story. That confrontation just there actually brought back some memories of a very similar conversation backstage at the LWR Arena. What actually happened there, Abdhala?

Qadir: You know what, Paige? Back then, I actually felt sorry for the little sod… Before we even had that conversation backstage, I went to see Jared Nash myself to appeal against the suspension decision. I actually offered to train Miles in aerial moves myself to save him having to go back to Noburu-sensei’s school, believe it or not! Jared wasn’t so keen on the suspension either, since Miles was still a very good technical wrestler, and an improvement in his aerial moves would really rescue his popularity, so he agreed, and I immediately went to see Miles and told him the good news… Well, as you might have guessed, he responded in pretty much the same way as you saw just now… He didn’t like being confronted with the truth that his high-flying moves were – not to put too fine a point on it – piss-poor… So he just challenged me to a match for insulting his wrestling – I noted that he’d then have to challenge the match to a match for insulting his wrestling, but of course that one went over his head… I agreed, of course, on the condition that when he lost (he tried to correct me to ‘if’, of course, but I held my ground there) he would have to agree to training under me for six months before returning to LWR. He just wanted the match, so he just agreed without listening – I’m so glad a camera crew were there as witnesses to the conditions…

Paige: So let’s see the match as it happened!

The video shows Qadir facing off against Miles, this time known as Future Unicorn, with a loud, multi-coloured spandex costume and an equally garish balaclava adorned with a plastic horn. Qadir is still wearing the dark, earth-coloured vest and shorts from her early career with a black Alice band; It is not until much later that she switches to her much more well-known all-white gear with the red bandana. The bell rings and Future Unicorn goes straight into his superhero pose.

Future Unicorn: Ikuzo!

The match begins with a grapple in the centre of the ring, which Qadir manages to twist into a headlock on Future Unicorn. She switches to a slightly different hold and leaps up to attempt a flip-over DDT, but Future Unicorn manages to escape the hold and throw her off him. Qadir lands on her feet and turns round just in time to catch a kick aimed at her ribs. Future Unicorn attempts to restore momentum to him with a Shining Wizard kick to Qadir’s head, but she ducks under the boot as it swings over her and Future Unicorn lands back on the kicking leg, this time facing away from Qadir with his other leg still in her grasp and sticking out behind him. Qadir sweeps the standing leg out from under Future Unicorn, making him land flat on his face, before applying an STF, but Future Unicorn is able to flip the move over so Qadir has her shoulders on the mat, forcing her to break the hold when the referee begins to count the pin.

A second grapple is cut short by a knee to the ribs by Future Unicorn, followed by a rush to the ropes and a spinning neckbreaker on the rebound. The audience gasps at his flagrant use of a move so similar to Lydia Redding’s finisher so soon after the accident, but they begin cheering again after Future Unicorn’s follow-up move – another rope rebound leading into a running leg drop – is dodged by Qadir and retaliated with a rebound of her own into a dropkick to the chest of the stunned Future Unicorn. Qadir rebounds off the ropes again, but Future Unicorn ducks between her legs and attempts to take Qadir down with roundhouse kick on her second rebound, but she ducks under the strike herself and on the third rebound she lays him out with a clothesline, before rebounding off the adjacent ropes and performing a handspring followed by a standing moonsault, but Future Unicorn is able to kick out of the pin after only one count.

The third grapple is turned into an Irish whip by Qadir, but Future Unicorn reverses the whip on the rebound and sends Qadir tumbling to the outside of the ring. He then climbs to the top turnbuckle and walks along the top rope until he is level with Qadir. He prepares himself for a springboard aerial move, and the emergency medical team in their perpetual ringside seats immediately begin to prepare their equipment. However, it turns out they are not needed, as Qadir springs to her feet and leaps up to the turnbuckle Future Unicorn initially climbed, causing the ropes to wobble and forcing Future Unicorn to drop down to the apron to avoid losing his balance. Qadir then springboards off the adjacent ropes and dropkicks Future Unicorn to the outside. Qadir herself balances on the top rope for an aerial move, and the emergency medical team are conspicuous in their inactivity at this moment. This is noted by Future Unicorn, who manages to roll into the ring under the bottom ring before plucking Qadir from the top rope with a crucifix powerbomb, though he is unable to secure the pin.

Future Unicorn does not even bother to stick around for another grapple this time and rolls out to the apron, pulling weapon after weapon from underneath the ring until he finds what he’s looking for: an aluminium ladder. He puts the ladder in the ring, climbs back in himself and picks up the ladder before looking around for Qadir, but she has disappeared. He fails to see her slide into the ring behind him with a steel chair. She leaves the chair on the mat and dropkicks Future Unicorn in the back, propelling him into a corner, where his head collides with the ladder and stuns him for a moment. Qadir takes a run-up and is about to hit an S.A. Stinger Splash when Future Unicorn ducks out of the way, sending Qadir’s chest and ribs smashing into the ladder. Future Unicorn then climbs to the top rope behind the ladder then rides the ladder down into Qadir. Future Unicorn then grabs a table from the outside and sets it up in a corner of the ring. He places Qadir on the table, then sets up the ladder and climbs to the top. The emergency medical team scramble to their feet as Future Unicorn scopes out an as-yet unplanned aerial move, but his inexperience at using ladders immediately becomes clear: as he leans forward in preparation for the move, the ladder becomes overbalanced and begins to tip and fall. Future Unicorn leaps from the ladder to try to save himself an uncomfortable landing, but he misjudges this jump and ends up straddling the top rope in an arguably more uncomfortable position than if he had just allowed himself to fall from the ladder. 

Qadir gets down from the table and removes Future Unicorn from his awkward position on the top rope. She then grabs her trusty chair, positions it on the mat near the ropes then climbs out onto the apron. Future Unicorn manages to wander straight into the optimum position for the S.A. Stinger DDT, so Qadir lets him have it: she springboards off the top rope onto Future Unicorn’s shoulders, then performs a backflip off him, and on the way down she grabs his head and drives it down into the waiting chair. Qadir then picks up the chair and climbs up the turnbuckle to perform the S.A. Stinger Senton, but the crowd shout ‘No!’ all at once. She looks out at the crowd inquiringly, and in one voice they chant back at her, ‘Through the table! Through the table!’ Qadir gets down from the turnbuckle, pulls the table out from the opposite corner and places Future Unicorn on it. She then climbs back up the turnbuckle.

Crowd: No!

Qadir: What else?

Crowd: Off the ladder! Off the ladder!

Qadir gets down again and sets up the ladder in the centre of the ring. She climbs up to the top with perfect balance, since aerial moves are her speciality, then leaps from the top with her signature senton splash, driving the chair into Future Unicorn’s chest and the man himself through the table. She then covers him and the referee counts the pin all the way to three.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back in the studio, Miles has walked back in just in time to see himself fall off the ladder, so he sits on the end of the sofa and refuses to watch the rest of the match.

Qadir: Over the next six months or so, I trained Logan in using a wide range of aerial moves, and yes, he did become a very strong aerial contender.

Qadir moves over to where Miles is sitting, with his arms folded and having a sulk.

Qadir: You did really well. You were still better at technical moves, but we cracked the aerial moves together. What you chose to do with them later, well, that was your own choice, but you persevered, so well done!

To the surprise of many of the long-time LWR fans, Qadir gives Miles a hug from behind, since he was too busy sulking to turn round, and gives him a small kiss on the temple.

To be continued in Chapter 5: The Confession


	5. The Confession, Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Abdhala Qadir, James Nash and Logan Miles are each training up a team of young wrestlers for the Mentor Cup tournament, but as the weeks progress, Qadir begins to smell a rat; Nash's and Miles's tutees look progressively exhausted, and unexplained injuries begin to appear. Eventually, Qadir decides to investigate.

Paige: You’ve all heard some stories from each of our guests on the show, so the questions that I’m sure are on everyone’s lips by now are, ‘What about Mr. Lester? What was his role in all this?’ For this, we need to rewind all the way back to the first few months of LWR. The company was growing fast, especially after the grand display of the new paradigm of wrestling that was the Abdhala Qadir vs. Ed Kennedy match, and more and more wrestlers were coming to LWR to show what they could do. So, as the key members of the first wave of talent for LWR, our three guests tonight were each given new jobs as mentors for the new recruits: Abdhala Qadir, mentor for the speedy, high-flying performers; James Nash, mentor for power wrestlers and martial artists; and Logan Miles, quite rightly, mentor for the technical style. As mentors, they were charged with training and guiding the new wrestlers… But something was afoot amongst the mentoring team; something that led to the first ‘Confession Match’ ever seen on TV. And something that made Mr. Lester think twice about the nature and results of the distribution of power…

They all turn to Qadir to hear her tell the story – all except Miles, who has disappeared off-set again, this time to remove the red lipstick mark from his face.

-LWR Week 13-

A match between Abdhala Qadir’s tutee Fernando del Fuego and James Nash’s tutee Bob Flynn, in the first round of the Mentor Cup. The winner will advance to the quarter-finals to face the first of Black Steed’s tutees, Ferris Seacrest. Seacrest has already defeated Nash’s tutee Nelson Gunn in the first round.

Del Fuego begins strongly, with a series of rolls and leaps to avoid the powerful short-arm lariats thrown his way by Flynn. However, each time he manages to dodge a move, he glances at his mentor to check he is doing well, and eventually he hesitates long enough for Flynn to connect with a Full Nelson Bomb to great praise from James Nash. A running splash from Flynn is averted by del Fuego rolling to the side, and the springy young Mexican delivers a baseball slide dropkick to the still-prone Flynn courtesy of his own mentor’s tutelage. After both men get back to their feet, a charge by del Fuego is deflected by a shoulder block from Flynn. Del Fuego leaps back up to attempt a running dropsault after a rope rebound, but the blow barely causes the giant Flynn to stumble. Del Fuego ducks under Flynn’s massive haymaker and leaps onto his opponent’s back. Flynn is unperturbed by this, and he flips del Fuego right over his head and slams him down face-first into the mat. Following this up with a powerslam, Flynn lands elbow drop after elbow drop to del Fuego’s chest with his huge arms, which greatly resemble two racks of kebab meat. He picks up del Fuego again, but this time del Fuego is able to escape his grip and roll out of the ring. Both men take a quick time-out to talk to their mentors, but Flynn is very impatient to get back to the action and he leans over the top rope to try to grab del Fuego by the mask. However, del Fuego is too quick for him and he slides back into the ring between Flynn’s legs before connecting with a successful dropsault to the back, causing Flynn to bounce backwards off the ropes. Del Fuego then takes Flynn down with a slingshot flying crossbody before heading up to the top turnbuckle, where he once again looks towards Qadir for affirmation, much to her dismay.

Qadir: Stop looking at me! Keep your eyes on Flynn! Hit the flying crossbody again!

Del Fuego leaps off the top turnbuckle, right into Flynn’s arms. Flynn takes him down to the mat with a powerslam, crushing del Fuego under his full weight, before dragging him to the centre of the ring and standing and waiting for him to get back up. As soon as he does…

Qadir: No! Don’t walk towards him…!

… Flynn takes him out with a fisherman’s suplex and pins him for the win.

Qadir enters the ring to tend to her tutee, and helps del Fuego to his feet. Del Fuego is devastated by the amateur mistakes that led to his loss, but Qadir kisses him on the cheek to reassure him that he did his best and she is not angry with him. As they go to leave the ringside area, Qadir respectfully offers Nash and Flynn her hand to shake; Nash ignores the hand and bats away Flynn’s hand as he moves to accept Qadir’s. She gives Nash a brief look of indignation before she proceeds to half-lead, half-carry del Fuego back to the locker rooms.

-Week 15-

A match between another of Abdhala Qadir’s tutees, Jieri Li, and one of Black Steed’s, Dylan Henderson. Another first-round match to decide the first contender in the third quarter-final. 

Henderson’s collegiate wrestling background becomes immediately apparent as he bends down to lower his centre of gravity in a grapple fight. An initial grapple leads to a textbook lateral throw by Henderson, but the pin is averted almost immediately. A second grapple ends with Henderson rolling Li up into another pin, but she is able to kick out. Henderson goes for yet another grapple, this time tackling Li to the mat and hooking both legs, and it reaches a two-count before Li is able to kick out that time. Li is struggling to find an opening for some of her more gymnastic moves, and it is only after a few more throws and attempted pins and a glimpse of a coded hand gesture from Qadir that she is able to counter an attempt at a grapple by dropping to the mat and flipping Henderson over her head with a monkey flip. A kick to the chest is caught in his hands, but Li counters with a shining wizard kick to the head, followed by a running hook kick to his face as he gets back up and finally a standing moonsault as he lies on the mat. Henderson kicks out of the subsequent pin, so Li picks him up, before driving his face into the mat with a standing leg drop bulldog. Li picks Henderson up again and, locking him in a side headlock, begins to drag him across the ring to a corner, but Henderson suddenly springs into life and takes down Li with a belly-to-back suplex, then follows up with a series of three German suplexes. However, an attempt at yet another suplex is thwarted when Li manages to counter it into a basic DDT. When Henderson gets up again, Li Irish whips him into a corner and connects with a mule kick, knocking Henderson down into a seated position. Li then goes for a rope rebound to build momentum for her next strike, but Black Steed leaps up to the apron and pulls Li over the top rope and out of the ring. He then climbs through the ropes and goes over to Henderson, where he starts yelling at his tutee and slapping him in the face whenever Henderson tries to answer back. Qadir sees this and, after checking on her own tutee, gets into the ring herself and pulls Black Steed away from Henderson to confront him. What they are actually saying is inaudible, but at one point Black Steed takes off the Intercontinental Championship belt he won from Qadir the previous week (albeit as a result of interference from Vampiro and The Ascension) and holds it up to her face, seemingly taunting her with it. Henderson has got up at this point and he puts his hand on Qadir’s shoulder, causing her to turn round long enough to let Black Steed grab her from behind and pin her arms to her side. Black Steed screams at Henderson to hit Qadir, but while he initially refuses, the verbal abuse thrown at him by Black Steed as a result drives him to punch Qadir in the face a few times before he receives a tap on the shoulder and turns to receive a fireball in the face from Jieri Li. The distraction allows Qadir to drop to the floor and kick upwards at Black Steed’s face, knocking him back into the ropes. Qadir leaps to the top turnbuckle and Li throws a chair up to her. Qadir connects with a modified S.A. Stinger Missile on Black Steed, knocking him over the top rope to the outside and gets out of the ring herself to allow Li to finish the match. Henderson is still reeling from the fireball, so Li is able to lay him out with a flip-over stunner from behind, before dragging him to the corner and climbing to the top turnbuckle. She delivers her finishing move, the Blue Suede Shoes, in which she launches herself off the top turnbuckle in a forward-leaping backflip a la the Shooting Star Press, but instead of flipping into the horizontal position to land a splash, she turns a full 360 degrees and drives both feet into Henderson’s chest, before hooking a leg to pin him for the three-count.

Qadir enters the ring to hug Jieri Li and raise her arm in victory, but they are forced to leave the ring quickly to avoid a confrontation with the enraged Black Steed, who is arguing with the referee over the attack he received from Qadir and how the decision should be reversed, but referee Jonny Sutton reminds him of both the no-disqualification rule in place in LWR, and that he actually attacked Qadir first and forced his tutee to do the same. Black Steed lays Sutton out with a mat slam in fury and kicks a recuperating Henderson in the ribs before storming up the ramp to the backstage area. Qadir and Li get back in the ring to help take Henderson back to the locker rooms.

Later on, Qadir has sent Li back to her locker room while she takes Henderson down the next corridor to Black Steed’s training area. She knocks on the door and it is opened by Ferris Seacrest, who is nursing a huge black eye. There is a sound of shattering glass from inside the room and the sound of Black Steed screaming at someone called ‘R’ to do another twenty press-ups. Black Steed then appears in the doorway and pulls Henderson into the room by his collegiate wrestling leotard before shoving the door shut, but Qadir wedges it open slightly with her shoulder. She is just able to see the shattered remains of the wall-mounted mirror when Seacrest obscures her view and shoves her out into the corridor again.

Qadir: Wait! What happened to your eye?

Seacrest answers without any hesitation.

Seacrest: I fell down some stairs.

He then slams the door in her face, leaving Qadir alone in the corridor.

Week 18 – The fourth quarter-final match between Fauna, mentored by James Nash, and Flyer GET! Boy’s tutee Fabrice. The winner will go on to face Jieri Li in the semi-finals.

From the quarter-finals onwards, all mentors and tutees have been required to sit at ringside to watch their team-mates wrestle. This allows Qadir to have a look at them all more closely. Directly opposite her team are Flyer GET! Boy’s team, and to the mentor’s immediate left is Ferris Seacrest. The black eye has disappeared in the two weeks since she last saw him, but there is a distinct look of exhaustion in his eyes, and a hint of wariness about being seated so close to his mentor, which is surprising since Seacrest is now out of the competition after losing to Bob Flynn the previous week. Next to him is the empty seat that was occupied by Fabrice, a tall and handsome man from the French colony of Martinique. Fabrice is pacing around the ring at this point, calculating his openings, as Fauna, a Capoeira expert from Portugal, adopts the signature, ever-mobile fighting stance of that particular style. As Fabrice’s first few attempts to approach Fauna are deflected by some blows augmented by the dancing patterns of the art of Capoeira, Qadir’s gaze returns to the seats opposite her. Next to the empty seat is the British grime artist-turned-wrestler Bassin’ R, his head still bandaged from even before his quarter-final match with Qadir’s own Toru Sakada; during their match, a particularly heavy blow from Sakada caused a spreading red patch to form on the bandage, and upon Bassin’ R tearing it off, it seemed that Sakada had re-opened some existing cuts that appeared to have been made by glass or something similar. Certainly not a single blow from a hand or foot. Next to him, Dylan Henderson is looking very much worse for wear; his ribs are taped up, despite Qadir only having witnessed a single kick from Black Steed two weeks previously, and they wouldn’t still be bruised by now, surely. Finally, the last seat is occupied by the very gymnastic Lenny Mays, who lost to Fauna in the first round with mercifully only a busted lip to show for it. However, after two weeks since his match the lip seems to show no sign of having healed.

Qadir is about to cast her eyes over to Nash’s team, seated either side of the entrance ramp to avoid being an obstruction, when a falling Fauna sails through her line of sight; Fabrice has managed to propel her over his shoulders and the top rope, and he takes this break from her onslaught to get his breath back. Qadir watches both wrestlers as they try to rejuvenate their energy, and they seem significantly more tired than wrestlers normally look after only five minutes of competition; Fabrice has sat down in the corner to get his breathing back to normal, and Fauna is spending an inordinately long time recuperating on the crashmats outside the ring for someone who has just taken a routine bump. Qadir gets up and goes to see if Fauna is injured more than it seemed at first glance, but as she bends down, Fauna grabs her shoulder and pulls her right down to whisper in her ear.

Fauna: Don’t help me! He’ll only make me do more…

However, Qadir is unable to hear the rest, as Nash has come over and shoved her away before picking up Fauna and tossing her back into the ring. The match continues with a few basic throws from Fabrice while Qadir watches Nash return to his seat amongst his tutees. He has six tutees, while Qadir and Flyer GET! Boy have five each - many grumblings have been heard backstage over how that might have come about, and hushed quickly if Jared Nash had been seen nearby. The first seat is filled by the still-immaculate Bob Flynn, who is cheering on Fauna with great passion. In the next seat Qadir can see the British artillery expert Nelson Gunn, and next to him is the former bouncer Pete Bailey. They both seem to be massaging their arms and shoulders as if they are aching, despite not having been in the ring since they lost in their first round matches three weeks before. On the other side of the ramp is the Italian martial artist La Dottoressa, who seems to have taken a blow across her face, though no such blow had occurred during the match she lost to Toru Sakada in the first round. She also seems to be very nervous about sitting next to Napoleone, an older Argentinian who has so many scars on his grizzled face anyway it would be impossible to tell whether any new ones appeared.

The empty chair next to Napoleone is for Fauna, who has just been taken down from the top turnbuckle with a crucifix powerbomb. However, Fauna gets straight back up with a fierce look in her eyes, which Qadir interprets as being somewhere between determination and, for some reason, fear. But the fear was evidently not of Fabrice, because she immediately springs forward to deliver a shoulder change that drives him back into the corner, followed by a very gymnastic jumping roundhouse kick to the face, also known as a tiger mask kick. She turns away from Fabrice, then flips over backwards and delivers a kick with the soles of both feet to his chest. After a few more solid kicks coupled with the breakdance moves of Capoeira, Fauna finally lays out Fabrice with her signature kick, the Capoeira Enzuigiri, which she has innovated herself: the attacking wrestler steps up onto the receiver’s knee, as in a regular enzuigiri, but instead of the follow-up knee to the face which would carry the attacker forward as the receiver falls backwards, Fauna’s move involves the attacker flipping backwards after the step-up, booting the receiver directly in the face and pushing them forcefully down to the mat. Finally, Fauna connects with a handstand leg drop and pins Fabrice for the three-count. 

Fauna struggles to get back to her feet, and when James Nash comes to raise her hand in victory, she recoils for a moment before realising his intention and allowing him the privilege, though Qadir notices a very cautious intensity in her eyes. She points it out to her own semi-finalist Jieri Li, as it reminds her of the look in Bassin’ R’s eyes when he narrowly beat Toru Sakada the previous week despite his loss of blood from the wounds on his forehead. It was a look of desperation that seemed to pierce through the blood and unexplained exhaustion and drive him to win, a look that none of Qadir’s tutees have so far displayed. Certainly, as a trainer she pushes them hard and never lets them quit too soon, but, compared to the other eleven tutees they all appear happy, healthy and well-rested, while you could carry your shopping in the bags around the eyes of some of Nash’s and Flyer GET! Boy’s team members. Qadir recommends to Li that she beware of that look when she faces Fauna in a fortnight’s time.

Since the Mentor Cup matches are over for this week, the teams begin to head backstage when Qadir overhears part of Flyer GET! Boy’s growled rebuke of Fabrice.

Flyer GET! Boy: Just you wait! Nash will deal with you while I’m dealing with Redding!

Nash’s recruits all break into a jog towards their training area as they pass through the curtain under the big screen. Qadir gives her tutees some training duties as they enter their training room, but she then excuses herself and continues down to the next corridor behind Flyer GET! Boy’s team; Nash’s lot have long disappeared. However, to Qadir’s surprise, Flyer GET! Boy abandons his team and enters his private locker room to prepare for his coming match. Qadir breathes a short sigh of relief on his team’s behalf as she watches them walk away, but she immediately resumes tailing them as they go straight past their own training area and pass into the next corridor towards Nash’s area. She presses herself against the wall and glances round the corner intermittently.

During her first glance, she sees Flyer GET! Boy’s tutees being met in the corridor by Napoleone and Nelson Gunn, the latter standing over a mop and bucket. Qadir resumes her hiding position as she hears Napoleone begin to speak.

Napoleone: Mr. Nash says you’re late!

Henderson: I’m sorry, sir. We came as quickly as we could, but…

Qadir hears a splash of water and a howl of pain as she silently mouths ‘Sir?’ to herself. She risks another glance, during which she sees the water bucket has been overturned. The floor and Dylan Henderson are now soaked with soapy water, which Henderson is now trying to rub out of his eyes, and over which Napoleone is tugging the tutees and shoving them into Nash’s training room.

Napoleone: You shouldn’t answer back. You should be very grateful to Mr. Nash for taking care of your training in your mentor’s absence tonight. Let’s not say anything more. Just shut up and do what Mr. Nash tells you.

The door slams shut.

Napoleone: Not you! Mr. Nash has something extra for you. First of all, take this and help Gunn clean up this mess your friend made me make!

A third glance reveals Fabrice and Nelson Gunn mopping up the water on the floor while Napoleone watches them from a chair. After a few moments, he inspects their work, remarking that he cannot see his face in the floor, then slaps them both across the face and screams at them to work faster. Qadir has seen enough, and she marches out of her hiding place and down the corridor towards the three men.

Qadir: Hey! This isn’t your job! You can just call for some cleaners. You don’t have to make them to the dirty work!

As soon as he hears Qadir’s voice, Napoleone opens the training room door and shoves Fabrice inside. Qadir catches up to Nelson Gunn as he is being shoved into the room as well and just manages to get in one question…

Qadir: How come your shoulders ache so much?

… before the door is slammed between them, accompanied by Napoleone’s curt response…

Napoleone: He fell down some stairs!

Qadir pounds on the door, to no reply, before heading back to her locker room, stopping for a moment to call the cleaners from an intercom in the corridor. As she passes Flyer GET! Boy’s locker room, the door opens slightly, and she can hear Flyer GET! Boy and James Nash conversing over a radio.

Nash: What should we do about her?

Flyer GET! Boy: I’ll think of something…

To be concluded in Chapter 6: The Confession, Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter of my backlog, and subsequent chapters will be posted every Monday evening (UK/European time).


	6. The Confession, Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> New evidence abounds to support Qadir's investigation of the strange goings-on surrounding the Mentor Cup, but is it enough to prompt a full inquiry by Bradley Lester? Is it merely petty bullying or is there something darker afoot? And what is Napoleone's role in all this? Can Qadir finally get to the bottom of it all? Find out in the concluding chapter of 'The Confession'...

Chapter 6: The Confession, Part 2

-Week 18, the day after the live broadcast-

Abdhala Qadir is overseeing her team’s training. Fernando del Fuego and Jieri Li are practising aerial moves from the turnbuckles while Anghel Santos – an aspiring sous-chef from the Philippines who is wrestling to pay for his culinary education – and Toru Sakada are sparring in one of the demountable rings that have been set up in each training area. Meanwhile, part-time cheerleader Jenny C. is landing high kick after high kick to the training dummy in the corner. Qadir is passing among them, occasionally giving advice on how to improve their technique, sometimes demonstrating how a new move can be performed. Suddenly, there is a knock on the door. Qadir tells her tutees to carry on as she answers it, and the knocker turns out to be Dylan Henderson, his right arm in a sling and his left hand carrying what appears to be a small Dictaphone. He pushes his way through the door and slams it shut behind him only just in time, it seems, since a few moments later the sound of voices and running feet is heard outside the door. Qadir’s tutees all stop what they are doing and watch Henderson as he approaches their mentor.

Qadir: What happened to your arm?

Henderson’s reply is automatic.

Henderson: I fell down some…

But he stops himself and shakes his head as if trying to dispel an impure thought.

Henderson: No… That’s not what happened… I can’t tell you what really happened. Just listen to the tape.

Qadir takes the Dictaphone from Henderson and presses ‘play’. A short burst of static precedes the voice of an out-of-breath Henderson.

-Transcription of the tape- 

Henderson: … I don’t have much time to make this tape, but I have to tell someone what’s been going on with the Mentor Cup. Don’t get me wrong, I never expected wresting training to be easy, and I’ve been through plenty of it back in my collegiate days, but I’m sure what my mentor’s doing is beyond the pale. It’s only been couple of weeks so far, and already he’s smashed Bassin’s face into the mirror and given Seacrest a black eye. As I speak, he’s got Lenny in a cobra clutch, and though the guy’s submitted three times already, Black Steed ain’t letting go. Something about showing him the harshness of the business…

Static.

Henderson: It’s been a couple weeks since I last made a recording, but I just need to record what else has gone on here. Power Violence and James Nash have combined training areas, and it seems that Nash, Power and Napoleone are the three ringleaders here. Napoleone was never punished for losing to Jenny C. last week; it seems he even let her win so he could concentrate on being a bouncer for the mentors…

Static.

Henderson: It’s Week 18, just before we go out for the quarter finals this evening. There is no reprieve from our training. We’re all in the same training room. Flynn is just left alone to train in the corner. I bet he’s too dumb to realise what’s going on. He just seems to be Nash’s pet. Nash is sitting on a cushioned chair with his feet up, and Fauna and La Dottoressa are dressed up as maids to serve him hand and foot; any slip-up results in physical abuse and an extra three hours of intensive training. Napoleone is in the corridor with Pete and Nelson, forcing them to clean the floor over and over again. Seacrest and Lenny have been stripped to their underpants, and they’re being made to spar and slam each other onto the concrete floor…

A sound of smashing glass.

Henderson: What you just heard is La Dottoressa dropping the glass of wine she was about to give to Nash… Wasn’t her fault… Lenny just backed into her…

Nash: You clumsy bitch!

The sound of a blow to the face.

Henderson: He’s just hit La Dottoressa in the face.

Flyer GET! Boy: And don’t think you’re gonna get away with that either, Mays!

The sound of ripping fabric.

Henderson: Now Flyer GET! Boy’s just ripped the underpants off Lenny, and the guy’s being forced to continue sparring with Seacrest while completely naked. That lip isn’t looking too good either. Power Violence busted it open again after Lenny had the audacity to lose to a girl…

Flyer GET! Boy: Oi! Henderson! Who the hell are you talking to over there?

Static.

Henderson: I think I’ve been discovered! I have to get this tape to someone tonight. I heard Qadir’s been hanging around here… Maybe she’ll listen to us…

-End of transcription-

At that moment, the door bursts open and Napoleone enters the training room.

Napoleone: Your mentor isn’t pleased with you, Henderson. Mr. Nash isn’t either, and Napoleone is simply deeeeee-RANGED with disappointment. Don’t cower behind your new friends, boy! Give us back that tape, and maybe we’ll forget all about this.

Qadir: Napoleone, you have no jurisdiction in my training room! Dylan isn’t even one of your mentor’s tutees, so you have no right to give him orders! I am offering Dylan asylum from your lords and masters in my locker room, so get out!

Napoleone: You want me out, Qadir? You want me to observe Henderson’s asylum in this little kingdom of yours? You’ll have to beat me to make me keep that promise. All of you will!

Qadir: Fine by me!

Qadir’s five tutees grab Napoleone and drag him towards the ring while Qadir calls for a referee on the intercom. Referee Arthur Noble enters almost immediately and sanctions a 6-on-1 Handicap Match by Napoleone’s own request. Qadir and her team take their places on the ring apron, and Toru Sakada enters the ring to face Napoleone first.

An initial grapple results in a side headlock being applied on Napoleone by Sakada. However, Napoleone breaks the hold with a rake to Sakada’s eyes followed by a sudden uppercut that knocks Sakada completely off his feet; the uncertain gait of Napoleone as he approaches his opponent makes it extremely difficult to predict his moves. Napoleone backs Sakada into the ropes and whips him over to the opposite side, but suddenly he turns his back on his opponent. Sakada sees this and goes to use the rope rebound to his advantage and connect with some kind of throw, but, without warning, Napoleone simply leans over backwards and sends two clenched fists straight into the jaw of the charging Sakada. Sakada staggers over to his corner and tags in Anghel Santos, who is brandishing his two short canes, or rattan sticks, that are associated with the Eskrima martial art. He knocks Napoleone down several times with the sticks, but his deranged opponent just seems to absorb the hits and get straight back up. Santos intercepts a thrown punch and hooks the elbow with a stick to pull Napoleone down into an armlock, but it is quickly broken when Napoleone kicks Santos in the head with the sole of his boot. As Santos reels backwards, Napoleone knocks both sticks out of his hands and places his hand on Santos’ throat, pushing him back into the opposite turnbuckle from his team. Santos struggles with the choke for a time, before his feet eventually get a purchase on the bottom turnbuckle pad, and an elbow strike to the ribs loosens Napoleone’s other hand’s grip on the ropes long enough for Santos to push off from the turnbuckle, slamming Napoleone down into the mat and allowing Santos to flip over the top of him and leap into his corner to tag in Jenny C. She avoids a lunge from Napoleone with a cartwheel and kicks him in the back of the head. This sends him to the ropes where Qadir knocks him back into the ring with an elbow strike to the face, after which he is laid out by a jumping hip attack from Jenny. He immediately springs back up and goes for a right hook, but Jenny goes down into the splits and ducks between his legs, before reaching up from her split-legged position and grabbing his head to flip him over onto his back. However, Napoleone’s feet land on the mat and he eerily lifts himself up like a spring returning to its upright position before landing a savage back kick right to Jenny’s face, laying her out on the mat. He then reaches down with both hands and lifts her up by the neck, holding her above his head in a double chokehold for a moment before throwing her down into her team’s corner. Fernando del Fuego tags himself in and climbs to the top turnbuckle, connecting with a diving headscissors takedown that propels Napoleone across the ring. Del Fuego deftly avoids strikes from his opponent with alternating jumps and rolls, and finally springboards himself over Napoleone’s head, grabbing him on the way and bending him back into a cutter-type move. However, unlike most opponents who are taken down to the mat by a move like this, Napoleone is simply bent over backwards with his feet and arms on the mat with his back and head raised above it in a reversed crab-like position. Del Fuego leaps backwards in revulsion, but the spider-crab in Napoleone’s shape follows him before flipping its legs over and connecting with the back of del Fuego’s head with a bicycle kick variation.

Luckily, del Fuego is near his own corner, and Abdhala Qadir and Jieri Li tag themselves in at the same time. The referee has no idea whom to deem the legal contender, so he just shrugs his shoulders and lets the match continue. Li gets Napoleone into a side headlock, then Qadir ducks in under his other shoulder and they both lift him up into a double belly-to-back suplex. As Napoleone is lying on the mat, they connect with simultaneous elbow drops before climbing to the top of adjacent turnbuckles. Li delivers a diving leg drop to Napoleone’s head and neck while Qadir performs a senton splash to his chest and ribs. They pull him to his feet and whip him to the ropes, taking him down with a double elbow strike on the rebound. Napoleone springs to his feet and goes for a rope rebound, but the two women catch him again and take him down with a double legsweep. However, as Qadir and Li are getting back up from the move, both of Napoleone’s arms shoot upwards and clamp around their throats. He rises to his feet, maintaining his grip with both hands, and grinning with his lop-sided, heavily-scarred mouth as he addresses Qadir and Li.

Napoleone: I think I’m doing to enjoy this most of all!

Sakada: Sou ka? Sore de, ore kara no wa, douzo! (Is that so? In that case, take this from me!)

Toru Sakada has got back into the ring. He grabs Napoleone’s arms and lifts him into the crucifix position, forcing him to release his hold on Qadir and Li. He then flips Napoleone over his head and slams him into the mat with a Dominator-like move. Anghel Santos then enters, picks up Napoleone and begins to lay into him with his finisher: a kick to the ribs, before twisting around Napoleone’s body to plant an elbow in his back, then twisting around again to knock him onto his back with a knee lift to the face, and finally finishing off with a standing leg drop. He then picks up Napoleone again as Jenny C. springboards off the top rope onto Napoleone’s shoulders then launches off into a backflip which ends in her catching him with her legs on the way down and delivering a powerful hurricanrana. She then picks him up again and Irish whips him to the corner, where Fernando del Fuego takes him down with a flying crossbody. Del Fuego rolls out of the way before Jieri Li lands the Blue Suede Shoes on Napoleone, and finally, after Sakada tosses her a chair, Qadir connects with the S.A. Stinger Senton. After a single gesture from Qadir, all six of them pile on top of Napoleone and pin him for the win.

As Napoleone lies defeated, Qadir’s tutees encircle him, and Qadir herself puts her foot across his throat.

Qadir: Well, then, Napoleone… We beat you… Now it’s up to you to keep your end of the bargain.

Napoleone is not even looking at Qadir when suddenly he erupts with maniacal laughter.

Napoleone: My silence is no longer important… Good evening, master!

Qadir looks towards her door, and sees Flyer GET! Boy holding Dylan Henderson in a loose chokehold while brandishing the Dictaphone in his free hand.

Flyer GET! Boy: Thank you so much for apprehending our little Judas for us, Qadir.

Qadir: He might be a Judas to you, Miles, but he knows when things have gone too far. I’ve heard all that’s on that tape, and I WILL be taking this matter to Mr. Lester.

Flyer GET! Boy: On what evidence, Qadir?

Flyer GET! Boy drops the Dictaphone on the floor before hissing in Henderson’s ear.

Flyer GET! Boy: Crush it!

Henderson hesitates, but the chokehold closes tighter around him.

Flyer GET! Boy: Do it, boy!

Henderson reluctantly raises his leg and brings it down on the Dictaphone.

Flyer GET! Boy: Now that’s out of the way, I suppose it’s about time I mentioned that Mr. Henderson here managed to spin you a most excellent yarn…

Qadir: What?!

Flyer GET! Boy: Oh, yes… You know, he has a wonderful imagination, young Dylan. He had the really amazing idea to expose you for the gullible fool you are, Qadir. The truth is, we all made that tape together, didn’t we, Henderson?

Henderson remains silent and turns his face away. The grip tightens again and Flyer GET! Boy tugs him by the hair to get him to look at Qadir.

Flyer GET! Boy: I said ‘didn’t we, Henderson’!

Henderson silently nods his head and averts his gaze from her again.

Flyer GET! Boy: And one more time… Didn’t we, everybody?

A multitude of voices from the corridor answers, ‘Yes, sir!’ The door opens wide and the rest of Nash’s and Flyer GET! Boy’s tutees file into the room, all except Bob Flynn, who is conspicuous in his absence. They storm the ring, assaulting each of Qadir’s team members while leaving Qadir alone. Qadir keeps trying to intervene, but she is repeatedly repelled until all of her tutees lie unconscious in the ring and the other tutees leave the room again, taking Napoleone and Dylan Henderson with them. Qadir kneels down amongst her tutees as Flyer GET! Boy approaches the ring.

Qadir: You will be found out, Miles!

Flyer GET! Boy: Oh, my dear Abdhala… I don’t think that will ever happen. After all… it’s only your word against ours…

Nash suddenly appears behind Qadir and locks her into the Full Nelson Camel Clutch. Flyer GET! Boy climbs into the ring and kneels down so his face is level with Qadir’s.  
Flyer GET! Boy: Anyway, I really can’t see what kind of problem you have with what we’re doing. We are simply keeping the newbies in check, keeping them in their place, making sure they don’t get ideas above their station. We are maintaining the status quo, Qadir… Surely you can understand that… If we give these young minds an inch, they’ll take a mile, and before we know it the entire race for the LWR Championship will be inundated with these obnoxious little ingrates, and then where would we be? We’d just be thrown onto the relic pile long before we’ve even reached our prime! Sacrifices have to be made, Qadir, to secure our long-term places at the top!

Qadir: So I suppose poor Lydia was one of your sacrifices?

Flyer GET! Boy: Redding was an idiot! Fancy trying to stand up while expecting a diving senton! Whatever injury she got was entirely her fault. Any injury these little pricks get is their fault, and if they don’t learn from them, then we’ll just have to injure them again… How does that sound, James?

Nash: Sounds good to me!

Flyer GET! Boy: And so it should… It was your idea, after all! And how does it sound to you, Qadir?

However, Qadir is unable to answer, as she has passed out from the pain of Nash’s hold. He drops her and leaves the room with Flyer GET! Boy just moments before Eddie Guerrero and Heidenreich rush in to see to their friend.

-Week 19, the day after the show’s recording-

Abdhala Qadir is in her private locker room, planning her first training session with Future Unicorn tomorrow, as a result of their match the previous evening. However, her mind is still occupied with the events of the second semi-final match last night between Fauna and Jieri Li. Looking around the ring at the other tutees, they were all more exhausted-looking than ever, though they did not seem to have received more injuries, and Dylan Henderson had been moved up to the first seat next to Future Unicorn; seemingly, a kind of promotion due to his actions the previous week, but Qadir could not help but notice that, despite his arm showing definite signs of recovery, he had a slightly emaciated look about him that none of the other tutees seemed to possess. Even more confusing for Qadir was the half-hearted sneer that he shot across the ring at her; his heart certainly did not seem to be in it. Turning her attention to the match, Fauna’s fighting style was all over the place, and when she was taken down with a very basic move from Li, it was all she could do to drag herself into the corner closest to Qadir to rest. Sportingly, Li allowed her time to recover, while Nash pounded on the ring apron, and then, more loudly, on the ring steps, to pressure Fauna into getting back up. When she finally did, a small scrap of paper fell to the floor. Qadir made sure Nash’s attention was on Fauna as she again approached Li to wrestle before diving down to pick up the paper. It was written in an uneven scrawl, with letters often seeming unusually elongated, as if the writer had either been drunk or suffering from severe lack of sleep. It said only two words:

‘Believe Dylan’

In that moment, she knew that the Dylan Henderson who had first come into the locker room the other night, and not the Dylan Henderson who was cowering in his mentor’s vice grip an hour later, had been telling the truth. But the evidence was now gone. As Qadir sits in her locker room, she thinks over how she can possibly prove to Mr. Lester that Future Unicorn and James Nash have been hazing their tutees…

At that moment, the silence is broken by the sound of tramping feet in the corridor outside her locker room, accompanied by the voice of Future Unicorn egging them on in very vulgar terms. The footsteps pass the door several more times before Qadir decides to take a look; it is ten o’clock at night, and this is no time for training.  
As soon as her door opens the footfalls become less heavy and less frequent. She could have sworn she heard people running before, but as she looks now, she can only see some members of Future Unicorn’s team of tutees casually walking along the corridor back to their training area.

Qadir: It’s ten o’clock at night. What are you doing?

The replies are simultaneous and automatic.

Team: We’re just coming back from training.

Qadir: Coming back? I’ve heard you coming and going about ten times so far!

Team: We’re just coming back from training.

Qadir: You shouldn’t be training this much, anyway. You all look terrible.

Team: We fell down some stairs.

As they pass her door, Qadir notices that Dylan Henderson is not among them.

Qadir: So where’s Dylan tonight?

Team: He fell down A LOT of stairs.

Future Unicorn swaggers past after his team, stopping only to smirk at Qadir.

Future Unicorn: My, my, my. What a clumsy lot, eh?

Qadir: They must get it from their mentor! See you in training tomorrow!

She cheerily blows a kiss in Future Unicorn’s direction, which wipes the smirk off his face completely and causes him to pause for a moment in complete bafflement before growling to himself and storming off with his tutees in tow.

-The next day-

Abdhala Qadir is in her training room. She has sent her tutees to train with Eddie Guerrero and Heidenreich in the ring area. A knock comes at the door, and Future Unicorn flounces in, accompanied by half a dozen of LWR’s best security officers.

Qadir: Thank you, boys, for bringing him to me. You can wait outside and keep his little friends away. I’ll call for you in a couple of hours.

The chief of security is very concerned with this arrangement, but Qadir notes that it is only her and Future Unicorn, that she is fully capable of looking after herself, and that she will call if she needs any assistance. As the officers shuffle out and close the door, Qadir turns to her new trainee.

Qadir: Right… In this session, we’ll focus on diving strikes: clotheslines, elbow drops, that kind of thing. We’ll keep the difficult stuff like flips and suicide dives for another time. Is that alright?

Future Unicorn: Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. Let’s just get on with it!

Ninety minutes pass as Qadir teaches Future Unicorn how to safely perform a multitude of high-flying moves, most of them utilising the arms as the key instruments of assault: basic diving elbow drops soon give way to arm drags from the top turnbuckle, superbombs and flying clotheslines, and soon Qadir is teaching him advanced moves such as the diving flip-over three-quarter facelock bulldog, also known as the Super Ninja. After a while, Future Unicorn’s arms are starting to ache from the constant strain of these moves, and eventually Qadir decides to call it a night.

Future Unicorn: Hang on, Qadir! This is supposed to be a two-hour session. Don’t quit on me now! If I have to do two hours with you, I’ll do the two bloody hours!

Qadir: You’re right, Logan. Maybe there’s one more move I can show you tonight, but you have to listen to every word I say in order to get it right! You ready?

Future Unicorn: Yeah, yeah, course I’m ready! Let’s do it! Come on!

Qadir: Great!

Before Future Unicorn can even react, Qadir has knocked him off his feet with a thrust kick and applied her signature scissored armbar to his tired and aching right arm. Future Unicorn yells with pain and foul language before Qadir places her top leg over his mouth to gag him.

Qadir: That’s better… So, you’re not so tough without your big mate Nash to hold me down for you, are you, Miles! And I know you’re not smart enough to keep up this whole hazing racket by yourself. You’re a follower, Miles, and you always will be a follower, never a leader. Just happens that you’re good at talking, so people keep you around. A great puppet, if you will. But your strings are cut now. Your script is gone, so it’s time for you to speak for yourself! Who’s behind all this, Miles?

Future Unicorn: You’ll have to ask me nicely!

Qadir: You’re hardly in a position to negotiate, Miles! I told you, you’ll have to listen to me and do as I tell you! So speak!

At this, she begins to twist his arm, adding even more pressure and pain…

Future Unicorn: I was all my idea, damn you!

Qadir: Your idea!? When the best superhero name you can come up with is Future Unicorn?! Do you have any idea how ridiculous you look in that costume? I warned you, Miles. You’re not listening to me!

She continues to twist the arm, and Future Unicorn yells out and swears again, but before Qadir can move her leg to gag him, he finally snaps.

Future Unicorn: Alright! It was Nash, alright?!

Qadir: Just Nash? Not Napoleone too?

Future Unicorn: No… Napoleone’s just a stooge… like me…

Qadir: Why is he doing this?

Future Unicorn: For the reasons I told you last week… and just… because he can! He’s the brother of the GM; he thinks that makes him untouchable…

Qadir: And you?

Future Unicorn: I just went along with it! He’s bigger and stronger than me!

Qadir: He’s bigger and stronger than me too!

Future Unicorn: He knew you’d never want to be involved in this! And he respects you… You’re one of the best wrestlers in the business… I’m not, but I saw the chance to become that by joining him. So there you are! You got my confession, but you’ll never get one out of him! Just finish the Mentor Cup and maybe it’ll all be over then, but there’s nothing more you can get from me, so let me go!

Qadir releases the hold and Future Unicorn sits up on the canvas, groaning and holding his twisted arm. He gets up and goes to move towards the door, but Qadir grabs him by the collar.

Qadir: Not a word of this to anyone, or maybe I’ll do the same to the other arm!

Future Unicorn staggers to the door of the training room and knocks on it with his good arm. The security officers open the door and start to escort Future Unicorn back to his locker room. As he is being led away, Qadir hears a snippet of his conversation with the officers.

Chief: What happened to your arm?

A long pause.

Future Unicorn: I fell down the ring steps…

-The next day-

Qadir is in the main office, across the desk from Chairman Bradley Lester, General Manager Jared Nash and head booker Mellitus Usher. She has just finished telling them all she knows and has experienced, including the contents of Dylan Henderson’s tape and the confession she wrung out of Future Unicorn. The shock and disappointment in their eyes, especially in Jared’s case, is evident, but Lester also has some other concerns.

Lester: You’re right, of course, Abdhala. If this is going on, it must be stopped. There’s only one small issue here… As it stands right now, without the evidence of the tape and since you were alone when Future Unicorn gave his confession, it’s still only your word against his…

Qadir looks extremely upset by this verdict, but she knows this is the truth.

Lester: However, maybe if I went to talk to the tutees myself, someone might say something… They might not talk to you, as a rival mentor, but maybe they’ll talk to me. Abdhala, I’ll do the rounds tonight and see if I can find anything out. See me in here this time tomorrow.

-The next day-

Qadir is back in Lester’s office with Jared and Usher. Lester looks exasperated as he tells Qadir the results of his reconnaissance.

Lester: So… I spoke to them all… And everything you’ve said about the injuries and the mentors’ conduct seems to be true. And when I asked them about the injuries, they all gave the some robotic reply. However, this would only be seen as circumstantial evidence, at best, and no one seemed willing to testify to your claim… I’m afraid there’s not much we can do.

Qadir: That’s not good enough!

Lester: Abdhala, please… There’s no way I can make a case against Nash and Miles without a second testimony. Yours alone is not enough.

Qadir: Then what can we do, sir? What can I do?

Lester: I don’t know, Abdhala… Not much, I expect, like I said…

Qadir slouches down in her seat with a great sigh of despair. Lester looks over to Jared and Usher for suggestions, but they are at a loss for ideas as well. Abdhala thinks over all her experiences; the injuries and excuses, the tape, her team’s run-in with Napoleone, the confession she squeezed out of Future Unicorn… The confession…

Qadir: A confession!

Lester: What?

Qadir: What about if I can get James Nash to confess to everything, in public? I bet if he does that then the others would testify right away!

Lester: I’ll accept that, if you can make it happen, but can you? How will you do that?

Qadir: I don’t know yet, but I’ll find a way, sir! You bet I will!

At that moment, there is a knock on the door, which has been standing slightly ajar. In the doorway, they can see Bob Flynn, who seems to have been listening to the entire conversation.

Flynn: Pardon me, Mr. Lester, but Mr. Nash wants to talk to Miss Qadir, right now.

Lester: Well, I’m afraid Miss Qadir is in a private meeting with me, Mr. Flynn, and…

Qadir rises from her chair.

Qadir: It’s alright, sir. I’ll go with him.

She turns to leave with Flynn, but Lester grabs her hand and holds it tight.

Lester: Be careful, Abdhala…

Qadir: Come, now, Mr. Lester… It’s me, remember?

She gives him a small kiss on the cheek before he lets her go. She heads out into the corridor and starts moving towards James Nash’s training area. Flynn walks alongside her.

Flynn: Well, that was surprising…

Qadir: Not half as surprised as your boss is gonna be…

Flynn: Don’t be so sure! I heard everything, you know!

Qadir: I don’t see how that’ll help him…

As they are walking along, Flynn has gripped the back of Qadir’s neck in his huge hand, leading her onwards and threatening to crush her throat. At least, that is how he wants it to look, while Qadir notes that he is not actually squeezing hard at all. At length, they pass down Qadir’s corridor, and her tutees rush out of the training room to rescue their mentor.

Qadir: No, everyone! Don’t worry! I’ve got this under control!

Despite this insistence, they all follow Qadir and her escort down to the next corridor, ready to take down Flynn at any moment. However, as they draw level with James Nash’s training room, Flynn shoves Qadir inside and wedges the door shut behind him in one swift movement. Qadir’s tutees pound on the door, to no effect, and listening at the keyhole reveals nothing. No sound is coming from the room except a small murmur of voices. Finally, Anghel Santos gears up to kick the door down, but at that moment it opens again and Bob Flynn simply pushes his way through the small crowd outside the training room. Qadir’s tutees rush in, expecting to find her beaten and bloody and surrounded by Nash’s team, but the room is deserted apart from their mentor, who is sitting calmly on a bench and beaming with a sense of sheer delight that she has not shown since the beginning of the Mentor Cup. She signals for her team to gather round her.

Li: Are you alright, Abdhala?

Qadir: Jieri, I’m more than alright. We finally have a plan of attack! This is what we’re going to do…

-Week 20 – the day before the broadcast-

A short vignette is played on the 24/7 wrestling channel that broadcasts LWR. Qadir is holding a small press conference in advance of the Mentor Cup Final between Bob Flynn and Jieri Li. Her team are all sitting along the table, and Qadir is making an important announcement.

Qadir: I’m afraid, everyone, that my tutee Jieri Li has suffered a major injury…

She gestures to Li, who is sitting with her leg in plaster.

Qadir: … and she will no longer be able to compete for the Mentor Cup tomorrow.

A groan of disappointment echoes around the press room.

Reporter: What does that mean for tomorrow’s final?

Qadir: I suppose that Bob Flynn will win by default…

Reporter: But how did the accident happen?

At this question, Qadir beckons for the camera to zoom in on her holding Jieri Li’s shoulders. Li winks at the camera.

Qadir: She fell down some stairs!

-The next day – The Mentor Cup final-

Bob Flynn is standing in the ring, this time wearing a crisp suit, as this is a very special occasion. James Nash is standing next to him, also suited, along with Bradley Lester and Jared Nash. In the centre of the ring, there is a table on which is placed the blue glass Mentor Cup. The rest of Nash’s tutees watch from ringside, as do the other two mentors and their teams.

Jared Nash shakes Flynn’s hand before passing him the Mentor Cup. The fans boo and jeer at Flynn, feeling deprived of what would have been a great final between him and Jieri Li. After a few photos of Flynn holding the cup alongside his mentor and the Chairman, Abdhala Qadir and her team start off an audience-wide chant of ‘Speech! Speech! Speech!’  
Flynn takes the proffered microphone and walks out in front of the table to address the fans. He holds the Mentor Cup over this head, to another wave of boos… Before smashing it to pieces on the mat.

The audience and nearly everyone at ringside is stunned by this move, and Flynn takes this opportunity to toss the microphone to Qadir, who has just slid into the ring under the bottom rope.

Qadir: Ladies and gentlemen, it is with a very heavy heart that I reveal to you the dark secret of this Mentor Cup… Fans from all over the world, this Mentor Cup is a sham! It has been sabotaged from within by a hazing network!

The fans gasp at this revelation. No one knows quite how to react. James Nash is furious, and is about to get into the ring and attack Qadir, but Future Unicorn holds him back, whispering into his ear that reacting in this way is as good as admitting his part in it.

Qadir: And I have good reason to suspect that the man behind it is none other than the winning mentor himself, James Nash!

Nash breaks free from Future Unicorn’s grip and calmly walks up the steps into the ring. He towers over Qadir and holds her microphone to his mouth.

Nash: You gonna prove it?

Qadir: You gonna deny it?

Nash: Course I’m gonna deny it! And you’re gonna retract that accusation!

Qadir: I’m not gonna retract anything!

Nash: Then we seem to be at an impass, don’t we!

Qadir: Of course, there is one way that we can secure a confession or a retraction…

Nash: Oh, yeah?!

Qadir: Yeah! I challenge you to a match, right here, right now!

Nash: And what’s a match gonna prove!

Qadir: Oh, do let me finish! I challenge you to a Confession Match!

Nash: A what?!

Qadir: Oh, it’s quite simple, really. Think of it as an I Quit Match… Except the only way to win is to make your opponent confess to their actions! Either I make you confess to your part in this sordid affair… or you make me retract my statement and confess that I made it all up!

Nash: Alright! You’re on! But you ain’t never gonna get no confession outta me!

There is a brief pause as everyone in the arena tries to get their head round this triple negative.

Qadir: One can but try, Nash! Ring the bell!

Flynn, Jared Nash and Lester scramble out of the ring as Qadir tears off her suit to reveal her ring gear underneath. Nash, on the other hand, has not come prepared to wrestle tonight, and he merely takes off his shirt to wrestle in his suit trousers. Referees Sutton and Noble get into the ring to clear away the glass and the table, but Qadir hisses at them to leave them alone, so they only dismantle the table and Noble leaves the ring after placing a microphone in each corner, ready to hear the confession.

The bell rings, and the first grapple of the match results in Qadir being backed into a corner by the physically superior Nash. After an uppercut to the chin and an elbow strike, Nash Irish whips Qadir to the opposite corner and goes for a corner splash, but Qadir deflects the move with a boot to Nash’s face, causing him to turn away from her. She leaps up onto Nash’s shoulders and propels him backwards with an inverted hurricanrana, smashing the back of his head into the turnbuckle pad. She then climbs up to the top turnbuckle, but Nash recovers in time to flip her over his head and drop her down into a seated position at his feet. Nash is about to lock in a sleeperhold when Qadir lies down on her back and kicks upwards at his face.

Qadir rolls out of the corner before getting to her feet and shooting Nash a look that encapsulates all the fury and pain she and the tutees have been feeling over the last several weeks. Nash lunges forward with a lariat and Qadir ducks out of the way, but as she turns back towards Nash she is laid out by a thrust kick to the face. Nash follows up with a couple of shoulder drops, before picking Qadir up with both hands and slamming her back down with a chokebomb. He steps on her ribs and stomach as he goes over to the ringpost to collect a microphone, then shoves it in Qadir’s face.

Nash: Confess! Tell them you were lying!

Qadir: No way!

Qadir knocks away the microphone and kicks Nash away from her. She gets to her feet and applies a front headlock to Nash, strikes him in the chest with one knee, then the other, then both at once to bring him down to his own knees, then finishes off the combination with a tornado DDT. She then pulls Nash back up by his right arm and performs a backwards handspring while still holding the arm to gymnastically apply an arm twist. Nash attempts a lariat to counter the hold, but Qadir ducks behind him, still maintaining the hold, then reaches round and grabs his other wrist before pulling him down backwards into the mat with his arms in the straitjacket position. She follows this up with a running leg drop across Nash’s head and neck. Nash gets up, and Qadir whips him to the ropes. He tries to take her down with a clothesline on the rebound, but Qadir rolls under the arm and dropkicks him in the back, sending him crashing into the ropes. She then rebounds off the ropes herself and jumps onto his back, driving the rope right into his throat.  
Nash rolls out of the ring and tries to escape up the ramp, but his way is blocked; Qadir’s tutees have joined hands with the other ten, and they are forming a solid wall at the base of the ramp that Nash is unable to get past. Qadir reaches over the top rope, grabs Nash by the hair and forces him to climb back up to the apron, but Nash strikes Qadir with a powerful elbow to the ribs, climbs back in through the ropes and applies a Full Nelson, before spinning it out into a Full Nelson Slam. He approaches the table that has been left in the ring and sets it up, then gets Qadir in position for a powerbomb through the table. However, Qadir recovers from the blow to the ribs, and punches downwards at Nash’s face a few times before causing him to fall backwards. Qadir leaps off his shoulders and goes for a springboard moonsault, but Nash rolls out of the way, picks up the writhing Qadir from the mat and delivers a vertical suplex that drives Qadir back-first through the table.

Nash goes into a corner for a moment to get his breath back, as Qadir crawls into another. The referees on the outside pull the wreckage of the table out of the ring, and Anghel Santos slides in a steel chair. Qadir props herself up against the turnbuckle, chair in hand, and when Nash attempts a running corner splash she throws the chair into his face before hoisting herself up onto the top turnbuckle pad. She waits for Nash to face her again, then launches herself off the top rope with a flying clothesline, but Nash has picked up the chair himself, and he swats her right in the face with it as she speeds towards him, knocking her onto her back and opening up a cut above her right eye. He picks her up and lands a strike to her ribs before rebounding off the ropes for another clothesline, but Qadir catches the clothesline, twists it into an arm wrench, then connects with a double knee strike to the chest and DDTs Nash onto the chair. Both wrestlers recover on the mat for a while, then both get back up slowly. They exchange punch after punch to each other’s faces, before Nash finally weaves to avoid Qadir’s next punch, hooks her right arm in his and locks in the Full Nelson Camel Clutch.  
Nash pulls Qadir across the mat to the ropes, where a referee holds a microphone out to them.

Nash: Confess!

Qadir: No!

Nash swings Qadir from side to side in the Full Nelson and again urges her to confess, but Qadir simply refuses once again. He lifts her up to attempt a dragon suplex, but Qadir manages to wriggle free from his hold, and propels him across the ring with a tilt-a-whirl headscissors takedown. 

Both wrestlers stand up, exhausted, but Qadir is not giving up. Putting her hands behind her back, she gives a secret signal to her tutees at ringside. Jieri Li rips the cast off her perfectly-alright leg, then reaches under the apron and pulls out what appears to be a roll of gaffer tape, while Fernando del Fuego and Anghel Santos grab a mic each from the corners of the ring. Meanwhile, Qadir reverses a third attempt at a clothesline into an arm drag, and locks in a hold very similar to the step-over armbar used by Ed Kennedy in her first ever LWR match. Nash, however, refuses to submit, and wrenches his arm away, flipping Qadir head over heels, albeit back onto her feet. Qadir’s charge at Nash is caught in his huge arms and reversed into a sidewalk slam, but she manages to sneak in a mule kick to his knee, causing it to buckle underneath him and allowing Qadir to connect with a tornado DDT. An attempt at a diving hurricanrana by Qadir is countered into a powerbomb, but after a few mudhole stomps by Nash, Qadir catches his leg and kicks him away. A snap suplex from Qadir is followed by a standing moonsault, but Nash is then able to lift Qadir from floor level to over his head before slamming her down with a gorilla press slam. Nash’s attempt to pick up Qadir results in a grapple fight, each wrestler trying to push the other back into a corner, until Qadir suddenly twists round and tries to take down Nash with a three-quarter facelock bulldog. Nash blocks the move and attempts to reverse it into an inverted suplex, but Qadir counters once again, flipping right over the top of Nash while still maintaining the facelock, and finally finishes the chain of moves with an inverted DDT. A final charge from both wrestlers ends in them both laying out each other with simultaneous clotheslines.

Qadir rolls to the side of the ring, and her tutees see their opportunity. To the amazement of all the fans, Jieri Li gaffer tapes one of the microphones to Qadir’s right foot. Qadir gets up again and dodges yet another clothesline from Nash, rushing to the other side of the ring, where Anghel Santos throws her a second microphone. Soon a loud rumble heralds a charge from Nash, but Qadir is ready for him, and she lands her signature thrust kick, albeit without the usual augmentation of a steel cheer, right to his face, knocking him right over and onto the broken glass of the Mentor Cup. Before Nash has a chance to get up and pick the shattered remnants of the cup from his back, Qadir locks in her signature scissored armbar, putting pressure on his arm and shoulder while simultaneously keeping his back pressed against the glass and shoving the microphone on her foot into his face.

Qadir: Do you confess, Nash?

Nash: NO!

Then Qadir remembers the trick she used on Future Unicorn, and begins to twist Nash’s arm.

Qadir: I said, do you confess?!

There is a pause while Nash screams out on agony, and then finally…

Nash: ALRIGHT! I CONFESS!

Qadir: To what do you confess?

Nash: AAAAARGH! I started the hazing racket! I bullied and abused my tutees, and Future Unicorn’s too! I CONFESS!

The bell rings and the crowd whoop and cheer as Qadir breaks the hold. Future Unicorn and Napoleone share a look, and immediately start to run up the ramp, but all fifteen of the tutees run after them and drag them back to the ring. Ferris Seacrest and Nelson Gunn lock them both into submission holds while others hold microphones to their faces, and they both confess immediately. Lester leaps to his feet with a thunderous expression on his face, and walks away in disgust…

-That evening-

Bradley Lester has taken Nash, Future Unicorn, Napoleone and Qadir into his office. He is fuming. As he yells at the former three, the door opens every now and again to allow entry by Jared Nash and Mellitus Usher, who are retrieving testimonial statements from each of Nash’s and Future Unicorn’s tutees. The pile of testimonies is growing ever higher, some of them several pages long, and Qadir and her tutees have also submitted testimonies based on what they heard on Dylan Henderson’s tape and Qadir’s own investigations. After reading and comparing them all, Jared Nash and Mellitus Usher deliver their verdict: Nash has indeed been hazing his tutees, and he also coerced Future Unicorn into doing the same. Napoleone was only a willing stooge of Nash’s, but he has implemented an equal share of the hazing.

Lester: I cannot believe that these practices are going on under my very roof! You have brought shame to LWR! This company is supposed to be rising above the rest, promoting equal opportunity for all races, genders, beliefs and wrestling styles. There is no discrimination here between the young and the experienced. They all have equal worth in my company! And you three have gone out of your way to bring this system to its knees!

He approaches Nash.

Lester: First we have to witness your beatdown of Brock Lesnar for what was clearly an accident, and now this! I’d already given him a week’s suspension. You had no right to further punish him!

He moves on to Future Unicorn.

Lester: You have also been party to a brush with suspension after you crippled Lydia Redding! If it hadn’t been for Qadir putting in a good word for you, you probably wouldn’t even be here right now! You have a LOT to be grateful for, Miles!

He finally confronts Napoleone, who merely grins and shrugs his shoulders.

Lester: I have no idea what goes on in your head, anyway, and I’m not sure I ever want to find out!

He turns back to all three of them.

Lester: Do you have ANYTHING to say for yourselves?

They are all silent.

Lester: Good! Because there is nothing TO say!

Jared: I’d like to say something to my brother, if I may.

Lester: Go ahead, Jared, by all means.

Jared: Jim, after that incident with Lesnar, I vouched for you! I even talked Mr. Lester into giving you the extra tutee because I wanted to teach you responsibility! In future, someone please stop me from making that mistake again!

Lester: Now, you each have two years left on your contracts, and I am legally obliged to keep you on for that time. If you want to leave at the end of the contract or stay on, that’s your choice, but for the remainder of THIS contract… James Nash, Logan Miles, your rights to any Championship in LWR is revoked from this moment! What’s more, I’m docking your salary for the past seven weeks of the Mentor Cup by 65% to pay the hospital bills for the tutees you abused! But I still don’t feel that’s enough… Mellitus, please tell these miscreants your plans for them…

Usher: Gentlemen, in two months, you will be given your final punishment at the Extreme Exhibitions Pay-Per-View! At this show, there will be no titles on the line; there will only be three extreme rules matches to demonstrate the next stage of the new paradigm LWR is setting out for wrestling. In the first match, you, James Nash, will face Bob Flynn, by his own request, in a Texas Deathmatch!

There are cheers from the ringside area; the fans have been invited to stay behind and watch this meeting on the big screen.

Usher: Second, Napoleone will face Abdhala Qadir.

More cheers.

Usher: Now, Qadir, I’ve been racking my brains to think of a suitable stipulation for this match, and after watching the tape of your match against Vampiro, I think I’ve got it! You will face off in a Shattered Glass Match! You have to put your opponent through a pane of GLASS to win!

Even louder cheers from the fans.

Usher: And finally, in the main event, Future Unicorn, or whatever you choose to call yourself at that point, will face ALL FIVE of your tutees… in an Extreme Elimination Chamber!  
An explosion of cheers from the fans at ringside and all the fans watching at home.

Lester: And after Extreme Exhibitions is over, I NEVER want to hear your names in connection with this travesty EVER AGAIN! NOW GET OUT OF MY OFFICE!

Nash, Future Unicorn and Napoleone all dash out of the office. Qadir is about to leave too, but Lester calls her back.

Lester: Abdhala… Thank you for bringing this to my attention… I’m sorry that I had to be so strict about evidence before, but you’ve proven yourself once again that you’re a true friend to all of us. I knew I could trust you not to let this go so easily.

Qadir: I did what I saw as my duty, sir.

Lester: In that case, I’d like to give you some more duties… I’d like you to personally advise me on how to push these fifteen young wrestlers in the future. Would you be up for that?

Qadir: It would be my pleasure, Mr. Lester.

Lester: Bradley.

Qadir smiles.

Qadir: Bradley.

Back in the studio, the audience is applauding Abdhala Qadir.

Paige: But that’s not all! Because coming up next is that very Pay-Per-View! Stay tuned for Extreme Exhibitions, in full… and in High-Definition!

To be continued next week in Chapter 7: Extreme Exhibitions 1


	7. Extreme Exhibitions 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As a result of the hazing racket exposed as a result of the Confession Match, Mellitus Usher, LWR's head booker, subjects the three perpetrators to Extreme Exhibitions, where they must face their opponents in three brutal, and in some cases dangerous, match styles, purely for the entertainment of the fans. At Extreme Exhibitions, there are no rules, no Championships on the line, no disqualifications. There must be a winner, and we will soon see how far some people are willing to go for a victory.

Chapter 7: Extreme Exhibitions 1

Paige: Welcome back to this week-long special of The Wrestling Review. Over the last hour we’ve heard Abdhala Qadir telling us the story of one of the earliest controversies to afflict LWR and her own efforts to expose the backstage hazing racket. As a result of this conspiracy, the LWR head booker Mellitus Usher devised a brand new supercard: Extreme Exhibitions! No Championships on the line, no rules, no undercard; only three huge main event matches to demonstrate the full extent of the abilities of LWR wrestlers, the full extent to which they would put their bodies on the line to entertain the fans, and finally the full extent of LWR’s new paradigm of wrestling! And as a special treat for all of you watching here in the studio audience, and for all of you watching at home, sit back and see for yourself one of the greatest Pay-Per-Views in LWR history: the first Extreme Exhibitions!

The screens all over the studio show what is now being broadcast on Wrestling Network channels all over the world: a recap of the events of the hazing incident, including highlights of the Mentor Cup matches, the Confession Match between James Nash and Abdhala Qadir, and Mellitus Usher announcing the three matches the fans are about to see in this PPV. The recap is then followed by the opening titles of Extreme Exhibitions.

As the show opens, play-by-play commentator Sean Pomeroy is standing in the ring.

Pomeroy: Welcome, one and all, to Extreme Exhibitions! We have not one, not two, but three matches for you tonight, each with different stipulations, but none with any disqualifications; in each match, there must be a winner!

The crowd cheers loudly for the three matches as they appear on the big screen.

Pomeroy: But before we move on… I’m sure that many of you are aware that Elena Dawes, my colleague on the commentary booth and a dear friend of mine, fell ill this week and passed away at the age of 63… She was a five-time Lester Corporation Women’s Champion as Queen Helen, a charismatic force in the ring and a joy to all who knew her… We’ve been working together here at LWR for less than a year, but we had a very strong friendship, and she was a great influence on everyone working on the shows. So, without any further ado, let’s all stand for one minute of silence as we remember Elena Dawes, our Queen Helen…

The entire audience stands as a bell tolls ten times and a photo of Elena Dawes in character as Queen Helen is shown on the screen.

Pomeroy: Thank you, everyone. She will be sorely missed. But never fear, because we have a new colour commentator joining us right here at Extreme Exhibitions! Please welcome another Lester Corporation alumnus… Ed Kennedy!

The crowd is stunned as the man whose defeat by Abdhala Qadir less than a year beforehand contributed to making all of LWR possible emerges from the curtain under the screen and approaches the ring. He takes a microphone and climbs into the ring to shake Pomeroy’s hand.

Pomeroy: Mr. Kennedy, thank you so much for agreeing to join us at such short notice…

Kennedy: Whoa, whoa, there, Sean! I ain’t some self-announcing blowhard that insists on being called Mr. Kennedy! You can call me Ed. I don’t mind.

Pomeroy: Well, then, Ed, I’m sure everyone here is surprised to see you gracing our ring following the clash between the Lester brothers not long ago. What made you decide to return to the Lester Corporation?

Kennedy: Well, it doesn’t feel so good coming in after losing such a great friend that was Queen Helen, but as someone who trained under her wing and shared a lot of great wrestling memories – and since my name is dirt to Otto Lester now – it’s an honour to be following in her footsteps for the second time, first as a wrestler, now as a commentator, and I hope I can do the Queen proud in taking her place here in LWR.

Pomeroy: And, just like the Queen, you hold a good many accolades from the Lester Corporation era as well: three-time Tag Team Champion with your partner Marcus Armbar, eight-time Intercontinental Champion and two-time Lester Corporation World Champion. How does it feel to be watching the new generation of wrestlers fighting for the same championships that made your career so memorable?

Kennedy: Well, time passes, and my time has gone. It’s time for the new generation to take their place and, though I can be very opinionated sometimes, I say, ‘Let the best person win’.

Pomeroy: Thank you for your invaluable words, Ed, and I hope we’ll hear more from you as this night progresses. I’m just getting word in my earpiece that we’re ready to start the show, so if you’d come with me over to the commentary booth we can get the action started!

Kennedy: Enjoy the show, everyone!

As Pomeroy and Kennedy take their places in the commentary booth, Pomeroy hands his microphone to the ring announcer, Harry Carter.

Match 1 – ‘The Bouncer’ James Nash vs Bobby Steele – Texas Deathmatch

Carter: The first match tonight is a Texas Deathmatch. In order to win this match, one competitor must incapacitate his opponent long enough that they fail to answer a ten-count following a pinning situation.

James Nash’s music hits and Nash walks out to the ring.

Carter: Introducing first: From Mobile, Alabama in the United States of America… He is The Bouncer… James Nash!

He is wearing his new ring attire, tailored to fit his new Bouncer gimmick: a security officer’s jacket and black trousers, the former of which he removes to reveal the black vest in which he wrestles.

Kennedy: Just look at how this guy carries himself: the confidence, the cockiness, the power that he shows in the ring.

Pomeroy: Well, Ed, we mustn’t forget that a lot of that confidence and cockiness came from his abuse of his brother’s position in the company, and it’s a direct result of abuse of the power that his brother gave him that’s led to this match and, by extension, this entire pay-per-view.

Kennedy: Naw, man, the only reason this pay-per-view’s happening is that he was stupid enough to get caught!

Pomeroy: He wasn’t just caught, Ed. Abdhala Qadir exposed the whole operation!

The crowd cheers as Bobby Steele’s music hits.

Pomeroy: And she did it with the help of that man!

Carter: And his opponent: From Colorado Springs, Colorado… Bobby Steele!

The young power wrestler, previously known simply as Bob Flynn, has fairly orthodox ring attire: a bare chest with tight silver-grey shorts, elbow pads, boots and taped hands.

Kennedy: With his HELP?! He didn’t help squat! He won the Mentor Cup simply because he was bigger than anyone else there, and his final opponent wimped out! We all saw that footage; Jieri Li wasn’t really injured! She tore the cast off in front of everybody, thus proving to all of us that she was a coward!

Pomeroy: Wait a second, mate. Steele smashed the cup on the mat as a clear statement against the hazing that was taking place throughout the tournament…

Kennedy: Well, then he really is an idiot! He had a trophy in his hand, the first ever LWR Mentor Cup, and something that would’ve looked great on his mantle for years to come, and he just had to go ahead and smash the thing as a STATEMENT!? I’ve heard of dumb muscle, but that move was just plain dumb!

As the music stops, both men stand face-to-face. Steele is slightly shorter than Nash, but that in no way detracts from the intensity of their face-off.

Pomeroy: Just look at that! These two men hate each other!

Kennedy: Can’t see why! Dylan Henderson said it himself, Steele was one of the two tutees of Nash’s that he and Miles DIDN’T abuse! He was all set to win the Mentor Cup whether Jieri Li was injured or not; he was given star treatment in the locker room; he was left to train on his own while everything else was going on. He should be GRATEFUL to James Nash for giving him that opportunity! But instead he decided to help Little Miss Goody-Two-Shoes, the Saintly Abdhala Qadir – and my arm’s still hurting, by the way – to expose his mentor, who just wanted the best for him. You call that gratitude? ‘Cause I don’t!

Pomeroy: Well, whatever the case might be, Bobby Steele requested this match himself to get revenge on Nash on behalf of all his fellow tutees… Well, except Napoleone, of course, who will be getting a match of his own later tonight.

The bell rings.

Pomeroy: And here it begins! A lock-up in the centre of the ring… A kick to the chest by Nash… Irish whip… and a huge shoulder block takes Steele down! Steele’s back on his feet… Another Irish whip… and Steele returns the favour with a shoulder block of his own! And I think this shows, in the first thirty seconds, how this match will continue! Two irresistible forces meet two immovable objects right here at Extreme Exhibitions!

Kennedy: You’re damn right, Sean. Both men have shown their irresistible power in the ring, they’ve shown how unmovable they can be, and now they both have to overcome the other. I don’t even think there can be a winner tonight, but there has to be one, going by the rules of this supershow, and it might be only the greater experience of James Nash that pulls through for the victory.

Pomeroy: You’re right there, Ed, and neither man is giving an inch as yet! These two men have just been exchanging blow after blow, and each time one’s after gaining an edge the other fights right back. Both Nash and Steele need to secure that vital second consecutive hit on their opponent to get the match to swing their way, and I don’t see that happening any time soon! And I wouldn’t expect anything less from the two biggest men in LWR.

Kennedy: You got that right! Only Nash can outstrip Steele in size, but I’m confused as to why Steele hasn’t used this to his advantage in the matches leading up to now. He has the size and the power to become the LWR Champion, and he really should have taken the chance when it was offered to him. Don’t forget that as a result of the Mentor Cup controversy, James Nash has been banned from title shots for TWO YEARS! The biggest man in LWR has been removed from the top of the pecking order, and Bobby Steele had all the potential to take his place… So why has he been so single-minded as to focus solely on this chance at revenge? I can only offer one answer: pure dumb muscle… That’s all he is!

Pomeroy: Well, it’s still looking pretty even in the ring right now. Both men have been exchanging powerslams and suplexes but neither have been able to secure that essential second move. Steele goes again for a suplex… But Nash is fighting back! Reversal! Reversal! Nash has reversed the move into an inverted suplex, and this could be the opening he’s been looking for! But can he follow it up? Oooooh! A savage Irish whip to the corner… and Nash connects with the shoulder charge! The ball’s in his court right now, especially since he’s just locked in a double-underhook submission hold! As you know, submissions count for nothing in this match: the referee will only acknowledge pinfalls before starting the ten-count, but this is a perfect opportunity for Nash to wear his opponent down.

Kennedy: And this could be the game-breaker for Nash. Steele only knows throws and power moves, but Nash has got his MMA experience to fall back on, and that can make all the difference!

Pomeroy: Nash is dragging Steele back out to the centre of the ring, away from the rope. The big man’s bringing the other big man to his knees… But wait! Steele’s getting back up, and he’s driving Nash back into the corner. He’s broken the hold and he looks like he’s going for some shoulder charges to the ribs. Three! Four! Five! He’s still going! Seven! Eight! Nine! TEN shoulder charges to the ribs of the Bouncer! Could this be a sign of what’s to come? Nash… staggering out of the corner and… straight into a powerslam from Steele! Steele goes for the big splash… He misses! Nash got out of the way just in time, and now he’s going for the Full Nelson Camel Clutch! This could spell the beginning of the end for Steele… But no! Steele scrambles to the ropes just in time! Nash goes in for another assault, but Steele just throws him over the ropes to the outside.

Kennedy: Steele needs to get in some power moves of his own right now if he knows what’s good for him!

Pomeroy: Nash is back up on the apron and… Ow! A powerful chop to the chest from Steele! Nash is dangling off the top rope; he needs to get back into the ring and… Suplex! Suplex over the top rope and back into the ring by Steele! Steele goes for the big splash again… and he connects this time! Pin! But Nash kicks out at two! Did you feel that, Ed? We almost saw the first pinfall of this match, and the crowd knows it! We are so close now to the true beginning of this exciting match’s stipulation. Remember, everyone listening at home, that even if one of these competitors gets a pinfall on the other, the match is far from over; the opponent has to stay down for a full ten-count before a winner can be decided! You can feel the tension in the LWR Arena right now! The crowd are thirsty for that first pinfall!

Kennedy: But a suplex and a big splash ain’t gonna cut it, Sean! Steele really needs to break out the big guns now. No time for kids’ games and simple throws. Steele really needs to do something special if he hopes to keep Nash down for a pin, let alone the ten-count!

Pomeroy: Both men are back on their feet now, exchanging blows once again. Steele goes for a lariat, but Nash ducks under and… Damn! Huge kidney punch from Nash brings Steele to his knees! Nash bounces off the ropes, but Steele ducks under the arm this time and goes to the ropes. He bounces off and… Big boot to the face takes down Steele! Nash goes for the cover… One! Two!... but Steele rolls the shoulder!

Kennedy: Only just! Did you see how close the referee’s hand was to securing that third count?

Pomeroy: I certainly did, Ed. It’s getting so close now! Nash has got Steele back to his feet, and that was a huge uppercut to the chin! And another one! A third would be disastrous for Steele… But no! Steele just evaded the uppercut, and he’s locked in a reverse bearhug! He’s locked in the Arms of Steele! He’s putting pressure on the same chest and ribs he targeted earlier on with the shoulder charges in the corner! And it looks like the Bouncer’s in agony now! Remember, there are no wins by submissions in this match, but the wrestlers are free to use submission moves to wear down their opponent, and it looks like that’s exactly what’s happening right now! James Nash is going down, slowly losing consciousness as the air is squeezed from his lungs, and a German suplex from Steele brings him down to the mat! This could be it very soon! This is Steele’s moment! Can he capitalise on it? He picks up Nash again and… Whoa! A bridging Fisherman’s Suplex! The Suplex of Steele! And the referee counts the pin! One! Two! Three! He did it! Now the match has finally begun! All he needs now is a ten-count and it’s all over! But…

Kennedy: What the hell is he doing?!

Pomeroy: Steele just picked Nash back up again!

Kennedy: You idiot! All you had to do was wait! Now you gotta do it all over again!

Pomeroy: And he’s tying Nash up in the ropes! Maybe he’s not finished yet! But wait… Now Steele’s beckoning to the back! Who’s he calling out?... No way!

Kennedy: Yup, he’s calling in the cavalry!

Pomeroy: La Dottoressa, Fauna, Pete Bailey, LWR Champion Nelson Gunn… All of Nash’s tutees are out here right now, and I wonder if they’re here to teach their mentor a lesson…

Kennedy: Is that just speculation, Sean? Just a maybe? Of course that’s what they’re here for, and it’s lucky for them that Nash is tied up in the ropes and they got a big guy like Steele on their side!

Pomeroy: I don’t know, Ed; Bailey and Gunn aren’t minnows either! And they’re just laying into their former mentor right now! La Dottoressa and Fauna just landed a low blow each! A low blow’s nasty at the best of times, but coming from two trained martial artists…? I can’t begin to imagine how badly that must hurt! Bailey’s untangled Nash from the ropes… Remember these two men have been in a rivalry of their own over the last few weeks owing to their very similar bouncer gimmicks, but I daresay Bailey’s got the upper hand now, and… OHH! He Bounces Nash halfway across the ring with that devastating suplex pancake of his! Now he’s picking Nash back up again! He whips him over to Fauna and BAM! She hits him with the Capoeira Enzuigiri! Now it looks like La Dottoressa’s gearing up for a move and… YES! The Oncoming Storm, her modified Lou Thesz Press takedown with the added pincer-like bell clap! Bailey throws Nash into the corner… Are we going to see it? YES! We talked about breaking out the big guns earlier, Ed, and now Nelson Gunn’s just used those big guns of his to connect with the Long Nines!

Kennedy: And that’s what really gets my goat about Nelson Gunn being LWR Champion, and this goes back to what I was saying before about Nash being removed from the top spot and Steele missing the chance to take his place; because he did that, the Championship Race got relegated to a sub-par division composed of these new upstarts, and our LWR Champion is the painfully sub-par Nelson Gunn, a guy whose finishing move sees him run at his opponent with his fists out! I mean, not even something awesome like an F-5 or even something practical yet debilitating like an armbar! A fist charge?! Gimme a break!

Pomeroy: Well, it certainly seems very effective right now, and while you were talking once again, they’ve all been laying out Nash… And now Steele’s picking him up once again! Suplex of Steele connects! One! Two! Three! And it’s on again! The referee begins the ten-count… One! Two! Three! Four! Five! Si… Wait a second! Steele just picked up Nash again! He’s broken the ten-count… Is he going for even more punishment…? What? No way!

Kennedy: Whoa, ho, ho! That music sounds familiar!

Pomeroy: That can’t be…?

Kennedy: It is! ……… Brock Lesnar!

Pomeroy: Brock Lesnar is back! He’s on his way to the ring… He’s got Nash up on his shoulders and…

Kennedy & Pomeroy: F-5! F-5!

Pomeroy: Brock Lesnar just got his sweet, sweet revenge on James Nash with the F-5, and now it must be over! Pin him, Steele!

Kennedy: Well, what you waitin’ for?

Pomeroy: What?

Kennedy: He’s not doin’ it! Now’s your chance, Steele! Pin him and…. WHOA!

Pomeroy: Suplex of Steele! He just took out Brock Lesnar with a Suplex of Steele!

Kennedy: And not just one Suplex of Steele! Down goes La Dottoressa, Bailey, Fauna…

Pomeroy: Nelson Gunn too? No! Steele’s bent him backwards in an inverted facelock… He’s lifting him up in an… inverted suplex?... No, that’s not it… OOH! Steele just fell backwards and brought Gunn’s back down across both knees! If that’s not a statement aimed at the LWR Champion, I don’t know what is! But what’s he doing now? He’s lying down next to James Nash!

Kennedy: He’s draping Nash’s arm after him! What the hell is he doing?

Pomeroy: The referee’s counting the pin… One! Two! Three! Nash has got the pinfall! Now for the ten-count… One! Two! Three!

Kennedy: What’s he doing?

Pomeroy: Four! Five! Six! Seven!

Kennedy: Steele’s counting the ten-count on his fingers! Don’t tell me he’s gonna…

Pomeroy: Eight! Nine! Ten! Nash did it! Well… Sort-of did it… Whatever the case, James Nash is the winner of this match, and I suppose he has his opponent to thank for that! But what is Bobby Steele’s game? Has he joined his former mentor?

Kennedy: Now that, Sean, is the smartest move I’ve ever seen! If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em! Bobby Steele recognised that it was Nash that made him great, and now he’s returning the favour!

Steele picks up Nash from the mat and helps him up the ramp. They are booed and pelted with rubbish all the way up, but Bobby Steele is unfazed as he carries his mentor through the curtain.

Pomeroy: Well, Ed, I don’t know what to say… That was a completely unexpected result, especially after Steele invited all the people Nash has abused in the last few months to get their own back, including Brock Lesnar, of all people, who made a surprise return tonight after his savage beatdown by Nash just under four months ago…  
Kennedy: I don’t care too much about that, Sean. Bobby Steele made his choice and we have to respect that. What I’m more excited about is the message he sent to Nelson Gunn with that innovative new backbreaker move of his… Maybe finally he’s telling all of us he’s got his eye on the LWR Championship, and about time too! I’m sick of looking at Nelson Gunn!

Pomeroy: Well, everyone, after that bombshell, it’s about time now for our second match of tonight: The second of the three Mentor Cup instructors, and the one who brought it all out into the open, Abdhala Qadir, the Saudi Arabian Stinger, the most extreme player in the game, will face the most unique individual we’ve encountered in LWR so far, the third man in James Nash and Logan Miles’ hazing operation, the one we know only as Napoleone! And they’ll be competing in one of the most innovative match styles ever to be born in the mind of our head booker Mellitus Usher… The Shattered Glass Match!

Match 2 – Abdhala Qadir vs Napoleone – Shattered Glass Match

Carter: The following contest is a Shattered Glass Match. The winner of this match is the wrestler who puts their opponent through a flat pane of glass. For this reason, light tubes or log cabins are not legitimate methods for winning this match, though they may be used as ordinary weapons.

Napoleone’s music hits and he walks unsteadily towards the ring with his unusual gait.

Carter: The first competitor: From Formossa, Argentina… The man known only as… Napoleone!

Napoleone is just about to reach the ring when he spots a ten-year-old girl waving an Abdhala Qadir sign in the front row. He yanks the sign from her and throws it away up the ramp, reducing her to tears. The old man chaperoning the little girl gets up to confront Napoleone, but the deranged wrestler draws back his hand as if to strike the girl, and the old man pulls her back from the guardrail.

Qadir’s music hits next and the crowd goes nuts. Her ring attire has undergone a minor change over the past couple of months: her vest, previously black, is now white, and she wears a black sleeveless jacket over the top, which she usually removes for the match itself.

Carter: And his opponent: Born in Saudi Arabia and raised in Tokyo, Japan… She is the Saudi Arabian Stinger… And the LWR Women’s Champion… Abdhala Qadir!

Qadir is about to head down the ramp when she sees the sign that Napoleone has thrown. She picks it up and finds the girl it was taken from, who is now in tears and clutching her grandfather. Qadir lifts the little girl over the guardrail and gives her a cuddle, before putting her up on her shoulders and running round the ring a few times. She then moves the guardrail so that the old man and his granddaughter can sit at ringside with the sign, which Qadir has returned to them.

Qadir walks around the ring, inspecting everything at her disposal during the match. In addition to several panes of glass, framed with wood for easy manoeuvrability, the officials have also provided boxes of light tubes, a few log cabins, and some tables, ladders and chairs for potential combination moves and high spots. She then gets into the ring to confront Napoleone.

The bell rings, and Qadir starts off with a few strikes to the face followed by a whip to the rope into a dropkick to the face on the rebound. Napoleone worms to his feet immediately, much like the uncanny method of maintaining his vertical base that he demonstrated two months previously. An elbow strike to the stomach followed by a perfectly-executed suplex results in the same self-righting recovery, and several subsequent combinations of strikes and throws end in the same way, always immediate, always with no sign of a move having been performed on him at all.

Qadir cautiously circles round her opponent, choosing her moment, hoping to land a few blows that would leave Napoleone prostrate at least for a moment; as it is going at this moment, just a few seconds could be considered progress in wearing this enigmatic individual down. However, as Qadir goes in for another attempt, Napoleone springs into action, quite literally. In fact, he leaps about five feet straight upwards and flicks out his left foot in a football kick; the toe of his boot connects with Qadir’s lower jaw and knocks her right onto her back. He then yanks Qadir back to her feet and throws her shoulder-first through the turnbuckle and into the ring-post. Napoleone climbs to the outside of the ring and brings a ladder back in with him, the top of which he promptly drives into Qadir’s stomach as she is recuperating in the corner. He then lays the ladder down on the mat and fastens both hands around Qadir’s throat, before lifting her up off the mat and away from the turnbuckle in a hanging chokehold then slamming her down onto the ladder. He takes her main kicking leg and places it between the two halves of the ladder, then climbs up to the top turnbuckle and executes a diving leg drop, crushing the leg inside the ladder. Qadir yells in pain and writhes on the canvas clutching her leg, while Napoleone proceeds to land boot stamps alternately to her back and the injured leg. He then goes for another diving leg drop, but this time Qadir moves out of the way and manages to land a running dropkick to his chest after he lands painfully in a seated position. However, the move causes a slight twinge in the targeted leg and Qadir rolls out of the ring for some much-needed recovery time.

Qadir gets back to her feet and tests her weight on her right leg. It seems okay for now, but she is unable to test it further before Napoleone’s hand reaches over the top rope and grabs her by the hair. He pulls her up to the apron, but Qadir breaks his grip with an elbow strike to the face followed by a shoulder charge to his ribs between the ropes. She then leaps up to the top rope and tries to deliver a springboard headscissors takedown; however, the injured leg is unable to apply the right amount of pincer power to the headscissors hold, so Napoleone is able to transition it into a powerbomb with ease. Napoleone connects with his first jumping elbow drop to Qadir’s shoulder, but she manages to avoid the second and picks up the ladder before climbing up to the top turnbuckle with it. She waits for Napoleone to get back up, an act which, to her relief, is finally beginning to show a small delay. Napoleone starts to walk towards the corner where Qadir is, and she throws the ladder lengthways at him, knocking him to the mat with the ladder landing across his chest. She then launches herself from the top turnbuckle with a senton splash, driving the ladder into Napoleone’s chest. Napoleone lifts himself to his feet again and approaches Qadir, who is rubbing her back after its impact with the ladder, from behind, but she is able to connect with a thrust kick, granted a slightly weaker one due to the punishment her leg has received, but still enough to knock him down back-first onto the ladder.

Meanwhile, the little girl has been looking under the ring apron for weapons for Qadir to use, and she points something out to her grandfather. He gets up and takes a look, before pulling out a huge framed pane of glass, twice as large as those dotted around the outside of the ring. Napoleone is writhing on the mat after Qadir’s last attack, so she makes sure he’ll stay down a little longer by executing a springboard moonsault before climbing down from the apron and going to tell the old man an idea she’s had. He is still a strong-looking individual for his age, so Qadir asks him to help her set up two tables in the centre of the ring, over the top of which they place the pane of glass. Qadir then lays Napoleone on top of the glass before setting up the ladder next to the tables-and-glass setup. She is about to head up the ladder when the little girl prods her in the side and hands her a steel chair, which Qadir accepts with a ruffle of the girl’s hair before beginning her ascent. She signals to the man and his granddaughter to vacate the ring before returning to her attack preparations, only to find that Napoleone has disappeared from below her. A wobble of the ladder alerts her to the presence of Napoleone as he climbs up the other side, and he punches away the chair that Qadir is about to bring down on his head as he reaches the top. The chair clatters harmlessly into the corner of the ring as Qadir and Napoleone exchange blows atop the ladder, neither of them letting up until the rhythm of their punches causes the ladder to topple and fall towards the glass. They both grab each other by the hair as they fall, and they crash through the glass and the tables together.

The timekeeper is just raising his hand, about to ring the bell to call the end of the match, but the referee stops him from doing so until he can decide the winner; the hair grabs before the crash through the glass were, to him, instigated by both wrestlers at the same time, so he is unable to make a decision based on who performed the move that caused the breakage. Instead, he is forced to scrutinise the replay footage to see who went through the glass first. In the meantime, Qadir has crawled out of the wreckage and has started pulling herself upright with the ring ropes. Her vest has protected her from most of the glass shards, and she has only suffered a cut across her right upper arm. On the other hand, due to the already ragged and scarred nature of Napoleone’s clothes and body, it is difficult to discern whether any further damage has been caused by the glass. He goes and sits in the corner of the ring while officials remove the debris from the ring. However, repeat viewings of the replay footage have shown the referee that both wrestlers went through the glass simultaneously, and so the match will continue. Harry Carter announces this to the audience as Qadir and Napoleone stagger back into the centre of the ring to square off again.

An attempt at a punch from the slightly worse-for-wear Qadir glances off Napoleone’s face and the momentum knocks her off-balance long enough for his clubbing blow to knock her down to the mat. Napoleone drags Qadir to the corner and props her up against the turnbuckle before leaving the ring to collect a pane of glass. He brings it back into the ring and prepares a charge towards Qadir, aiming to simply smash the pane over her head to win the match. However, Qadir finds the chair that had been jettisoned during their skirmish on top of the ladder, and swings it at the glass, smashing it before Napoleone is able to carry out his plan. Napoleone is furious, and he snatches the ladder away from Qadir, turning it against her with a blow to the ribs and a second one to the back, before stamping out his frustration on the remains of the frame. Soon enough, the frame breaks apart, leaving Napoleone holding a length of wood with a few fragments of glass protruding from it. He turns back to Qadir, locking in a rear chokehold with one arm while raking the glass shards across her forehead with the other, opening up a series of cuts from which blood begins to flow profusely. He backs up against the ring ropes, preparing another charge in which he intends to drive the shards into Qadir’s back, when the little girl attempts to strike at his calf with her elbow.

Napoleone turns to her and climbs down to the outside of the ring. He advances on the little girl with menace, but her grandfather gets in between them and attempts to stare Napoleone down with a look of fury that is strangely recognisable to some of the older members of the audience.

Kennedy: Hang on… I’ve seen that look before!... No way!

Unfazed, Napoleone lands a punch to the old man’s face, but the man takes the blow surprisingly well and resumes his glare.

Kennedy: NO WAY! That CAN’T be HIM!

To Napoleone’s complete surprise, the old man retaliates with a punch of his own that knocks the deranged wrestler right off his feet.

Kennedy: That’s… NO! But it is!

Pomeroy: What?

Kennedy: I might be wrong, but… Napoleone just picked a fight with… Castor Samir!

Pomeroy: What? You mean THAT’S Castor Samir, the greatest Anatolian wrestler of all time? I’ve never seen him without the mask!

Kennedy: That’s him, alright! The man with the most terrifying eyes in all wrestling! He’s a living legend! And he’s certainly taking apart Napoleone right now.

Sure enough, the man, now positively identified as Turkish wrestling legend Castor Samir, has taken Napoleone back into the ring, and he has taken over the match. He lands a few blows to Napoleone’s face, then whips him to the ropes and takes him down with a powerful shoulder block. A charge by Napoleone is countered by Samir lifting him over his head and slamming him down with a gorilla press slam. A second charge is reversed with another lift into a Hotshot off the ropes. Finally, Qadir manages to get back to her feet, and she and Samir take Napoleone down with a double pancake. Samir then climbs to the outside and slides a table and a pane of glass into the ring. He is just about to climb back in, but he changes his mind and drops back down. He picks up a log cabin and a box of light tubes and puts them in the ring while Qadir is setting up the tables. He gets back into the ring and helps Qadir place the pane of glass over the table. Qadir grabs the chair from the corner and goes to prepare for the S.A. Stinger Senton, but Samir stops her and points to the box of light tubes. Qadir is confused for a moment, so Samir opens the box and starts laying the light tubes on top of the glass. Qadir puts the chair down next to the table to help him, and Samir fetches the other box as well. As they are both laying the tubes down, Napoleone rises to his feet and goes for another charge, but Samir smashes the tube he is holding across Napoleone’s chest, and Qadir delivers a tornado DDT straight down onto the chair. Qadir and Samir lay Napoleone across the tubes and the glass, and Qadir climbs to the top turnbuckle with the chair. Samir holds Napoleone down as Qadir leaps from the top, connecting with her finishing senton and driving Napoleone through the tubes, the glass, the table and the log cabin.

The bell rings and Harry Carter announces Qadir as the winner as she is being helped from the wreckage by Castor Samir and his granddaughter. Qadir’s leg is still weak from the match, so she goes down on one knee to take the weight off it, and puts the young girl on her other knee. The blood pouring from Qadir’s forehead has stained her previously white vest bright red. The girl dips her finger into the blood and draws a line across both Qadir’s cheeks with it, then Samir takes his granddaughter and they parade around the ring, waving the Qadir sign. Finally, they help Qadir out of the ring and accompany her to the backstage area while the officials clear away the debris ready for the final match.

As the camera pans to the commentary desk, Ed Kennedy, who has been bitterly dismissive of Abdhala Qadir all through the match as a result of his loss to her at the very beginning of LWR, is applauding both her and Samir as they leave the ringside area.

Pomeroy: Well, now, ladies and gentlemen, the Elimination Chamber is now descending for the third and final match tonight. Remember, everyone, that the Chamber is sixteen feet tall and thirty-six feet in diameter, it’s made from ten tons of steel, and its walls comprise two miles of chain. There are four cells inside in which four wrestlers will wait their turn to join the match. But this is no ordinary Elimination Chamber match; I’ve just told you the dimensions of the Chamber… Over now to Harry Carter to explain the dimensions of the match itself!

Match 3: Logan Miles vs Bassin’ R vs Len Y vs Locke Smythe vs Fabrice Calour vs Dylan Henderson – Extreme Elimination Chamber Match

Carter: The final match tonight will be an Extreme Elimination Chamber! At the beginning of this match, four of the six competitors will be assigned a cell each; the remaining two will compete first in the ring. After five minutes, a cell will open and another wrestler will join the match, and this will repeat until all six wrestlers have joined. After the last wrestler is released from their cell, a siren will sound; this is a cue for all wrestlers to vacate the ring and move towards the platforms in the Chamber. The ring will then descend into the floor, and after a three-minute interval it will re-emerge with a variety of weapons the wrestlers may use on each other! If a wrestler is pinned or forced to submit at any point during this match, they will be eliminated, and they will have to leave the Chamber!

The music used for Logan Miles’ team during the Mentor Cup begins to play, and Miles’ five tutees come down to the ring one-by-one.

Carter: And now to introduce the participants in the Extreme Elimination Chamber! First of all… From Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada… Dylan Henderson!

Pomeroy: Dylan Henderson, the former collegiate wrestler, now making a huge impact in professional wrestling here at LWR. He was also the first person to try to expose the hazing racket, so I wonder if Logan Miles will target Henderson especially for that reason…

Carter: From Melbourne, in Queensland, Australia… The Master of Holds… Locke Smythe!

Pomeroy: Locke Smythe entered LWR as Ferris Seacrest during the Mentor Cup, and, as his new name suggests, no armlock, headlock, leglock or any other kind of lock is alien to him!

Carter: From the island of Martinique… The Greatest Lover in the Western Hemisphere, and one half of the LWR Tag Team Champions… Fabrice Calour!

Kennedy: What kind of arrogance leads him to name himself the greatest lover of anywhere? I’ve never seen any girls following him around!

Pomeroy: Well, it’s only a matter of time, Ed. He’s got a lot of very attractive qualities: he’s very funny, he’s not a bad-looking guy and a lot of people have told me he’s a very nice feller…

Kennedy: I think this Extreme Elimination Chamber will teach him that LWR is no place for nice people! Nice will get you nowhere in this life, kid! Learn that one from your mentor!

Carter: And, coming to the ring together… From San Francisco, California, and Harold Wood, in England, respectively… They are two thirds of the *w*a*r* CRY tag team… Len Y and Bassin’ R!

Pomeroy: Len Y and Bassin’ R, of course, joined with Abdhala Qadir’s tutee Jenny C after the Mentor Cup, hence C-R-Y. Jenny and Len are now part of a cheerleading tag team, of all things, accompanied at all times by their mixmaster and emcee, Bassin’ R.

Finally, Logan Miles’ own music hits and he comes out in his street attire, comprising of a black jacket with many brand name badges sewn onto it, a long, baggy red shirt, black leggings covered with Japanese writing and three-inch silver platform shoes. Tagging along behind him is Aki Nonaka, in a gigantic pink and white ama-loli-style dress.

Carter: And finally… From the city of Croydon in South London, England… Accompanied to the ring by Aki Nonaka… The man with many names, but tonight he is only… Logan Miles!

Pomeroy: Well… As you saw this week on LWR TV, Chairman Bradley Lester told Logan Miles that for this match here at Extreme Exhibitions he wants to see no gimmicks, no fancy names. He just told Miles to ‘come as he is’… and, well… This is Logan Miles coming as he is! If you tell a person as flamboyant as Logan Miles to come in his street clothes, this is what you’ll get!

Kennedy: Well, as ridiculous as some people think he looks, I have to applaud him for being himself. He’s a great wrestler and a great personality in the ring, and I think he’s one of the most down-to-earth people we have here in LWR.

Pomeroy: Down to earth? Ed, the guy wanted to be a superhero, and he didn’t even know how to fly! His attempts injured a load of wrestlers and paralysed one young woman for life! It took the highest flyer in LWR to BRING him back down to earth! If there’s one thing he doesn’t know how to be, it’s himself!

Miles enters the Chamber and then the ring, in which he finds himself facing his five opponents, who are all standing with their arms on each other’s shoulders, united against their former mentor. Miles takes off his jacket and shirt, and makes Nonaka fold them carefully on the mat, while referee Arthur Noble directs the six combatants’ attention to the big screen so they can be assigned their cells. The cells are numbered one to four, and a randomiser will select an occupant for each cell. The first cell is assigned to Locke Smythe, the second to Bassin’ R and the third to Dylan Henderson. They all shake hands with their allies before taking their positions, and the three remaining contestants look to see who will be facing off in the ring first. The randomiser starts again, and Fabrice Calour is assigned to the fourth cell. Miles is livid, and he kicks the ropes in fury as Calour wishes Len Y good luck before he is sealed into his cell. Len and Miles take their places in the ring as Nonaka leaves with Miles’ clothes, the Chamber is locked tight, and Arthur Noble signals for the bell to ring.

Len and Miles start with a grapple in the centre of the ring, and Miles quickly applies an arm wrench to Len. Len handsprings out of the hold and applies an arm wrench of his own, which he twists into a hammerlock to Locke Smythe’s approval. Before Miles is able to fight his way out of the hold, Len releases the hammerlock and lands a swift dropkick to Miles’ back, propelling him into the ropes. As Miles bounces back towards him, Len takes him down with a leg sweep, then follows up with a slingshot dropkick off the adjacent ropes. He goes for a pin, but he quickly breaks it after Fabrice Calour pounds on his cell wall to remind them that they all want a turn against Miles. Len grabs hold of Miles, lands a few punches, then Irish whips him to the ropes. He attempts an acrobatic mule kick, but Miles catches him and drops him into the wheelbarrow position, which he then uses to flip Len over his head and back-first into the turnbuckle. Miles pushes Len into the corner, leaps to the second rope to straddle Len as he delivers a few punches to Len’s head, then monkey flips him away from the turnbuckle before climbing up to the top. The crowd have a sharp intake of breath, since they are unsure if Miles is safe to use aerial moves yet, but their concern is soon relieved when Len leaps up to the top rope and brings Miles down to the mat with a roundhouse kick to the head.

Len climbs up to the top rope instead, and takes down Miles with a flying clothesline preceded by a shooting star press-type leap. He goes for a slingshot splash, but Miles lifts up his knees and Len lands on them ribs-first. Miles picks up Len, applies a brief bearhug-like hold, then transitions it effortlessly into a belly-to-belly suplex, proving to all his real talent for technical wrestling. He goes for the pin, but Len kicks out after a two-count. Miles picks up Len and drives him backwards into the turnbuckle, before choking him with one of his high platform shoes pressed into his throat. He then locks Len into a front headlock, and twists it into a three-quarter facelock bulldog that propels Len back to the turnbuckle. Miles lands a few chops and elbow strikes to Len’s face, then backs away for a moment before delivering a running middle kick to the chest. He delivers a second kick, then back away again for a third, this time taunting the crowd and Len’s allies in the cells by figuratively brushing the dust from his kicking shoe, then runs back to give Len the kick, only to realise too late that his opponent has disappeared from the corner. Luckily, the three-inch platform and the high ankle of the boot protects Miles’ foot from serious injury as it collides with the ringpost, and he looks wildly about for Len, but he is unable to see him until a whistle brings his attention to his foe’s presence at the top of Locke Smythe’s cell. Len leaps from the top of the cell, taking Miles down with a missile dropkick, then he climbs the opposite turnbuckle then up to the top of Bassin’ R’s cell, his stablemate cheering him on from below. Len prepares for another aerial move, but Miles makes a running leap to the turnbuckle beneath him, and a second three-quarter facelock bulldog slams Len’s face into the top of the cell. The plexiglass ceiling underneath Len suddenly gives way, sending him tumbling down into the cell on top of Bassin’ R.

Miles recovers quickly from the ten-foot fall he suffered after delivering his move, and beats his chest in celebration of his first victory in the Chamber, before flipping the bird at Len and Bassin’ R. The screen shows that there is still one more minute to elapse before the first cell is opened, so Miles takes the time to recuperate. Throughout the eternal-seeming last minute, the crowd counts down the slowly-diminishing seconds until finally the horn sounds for the next competitor to join the match. The spotlight performs a spinning roulette between the four cells, before finally coming to rest on Dylan Henderson, who snaps out of his meditation and rushes out of the cell as soon as the door slides open.

Henderson and Miles lock up, and Henderson brings down Miles with an amateur wrestling-style takedown before applying a sleeperhold. Miles struggles to his feet and rushes to the ropes, and the rebound forces Henderson to break the hold and ricochet backwards. Miles charges towards Henderson, who swiftly delivers a hip toss, then grabs Miles around the waist from behind and delivers three consecutive German suplexes. They grapple in the centre of the ring again, then Miles applies a side headlock. Henderson pushes towards the ropes this time and Irish whips Miles to the opposite ropes, but Miles lays Henderson out on the rebound with a kick to the face, using his heavy shoes to his advantage. Miles rebounds off the ropes for another charge, but Henderson lunges at him and takes him off his feet with a forearm strike. Henderson whips Miles to the ropes, but Miles rolls over his opponent’s back and applies an inverted facelock mid-flow. He is just about to perform a spinning neckbreaker, but Henderson manages to flip over Miles’ head, grab him in an inverted facelock of his own then connect with an inverted DDT. Henderson goes to rest in the corner while Miles gets back to his feet, but Henderson’s subsequent charge is countered into a pancake slam. Miles picks up Henderson, strikes him once in the stomach with each knee, then Irish whips him and takes him down with a high knee on the rebound, launching Henderson head-over-heels with the impact, and Miles connects with another three-quarter facelock bulldog on the way down.

As Henderson gets back up, Miles grabs him by the head and drags him into a corner, slamming his face into the top turnbuckle pad and delivering a few punches to temporarily incapacitate his opponent. He then goes to take a run-up for his middle kick attack, but Henderson catches his foot and lifts Miles over the ropes to the steel platform on the outside. Henderson leans over the top rope as Miles gets back up, but Miles sees his opportunity and surprises Henderson with a three-quarter facelock bulldog that drives his throat down onto the rope and flings him halfway across the ring. Henderson is on all fours, gasping for air, when Miles climbs back into the ring and lands a vicious kick to the side of his head. Miles kicks Henderson several times in the ribs in a manner greatly reminiscent of his assault on Henderson during the Mentor Cup, then picks him up and throws him into the corner. This time, he connects with a middle kick from the big shoes, and he is just about to draw back for another when the horn blows for another cell to open. Henderson manages to flash Miles a weak smirk as the spotlight settles on Locke Smythe’s cell.

Miles turns his attention to Smythe as he climbs through the ropes, and lands a kick to his arm that sends him back to the steel platform on the outside. Miles vaults over the top rope, and Henderson’s smirk fades as a scream of pain from Smythe signals that one of the three-inch platforms has landed straight on the left hand of the Master of Holds. Miles realises his advantage and immediately goes to work on Smythe’s left arm and hand with repeated kicks from his huge shoes. He throws Smythe into the ring and ties up his right arm in the ropes before slamming his left arm into the steel ringpost. He goes to do it again, but Dylan Henderson is back on his feet, and he leaps over the ropes to take down Miles with a flying forearm strike. Henderson whips Miles face-first into the chain wall of the Chamber, busting his forehead open, before going to untangle his ally from the ropes. Miles rolls back into the ring, his forehead bleeding, and he gets up to face his opponents. He sidesteps a charge from Henderson, but Smythe takes him down with a Lou Thesz Press and starts whaling on him with his good hand. Smythe flips his former mentor over and applies an STF, but a few punches to his left hand from Miles manages to break the hold. Miles lays a few stomps on Smythe as he lies on the mat, nursing his injured hand, but Henderson appears behind him and delivers a powerful release German suplex, throwing Miles right over the top rope to the steel platform. Smythe climbs out to the platform and whips Miles into the wall of a cell, inside which Len Y and Bassin’ R are watching, itching to get their hands on Miles themselves. Smythe then whips Miles towards Henderson, who throws Miles into the cell behind him with a belly-to-belly suplex. Miles’ back collides with the plexiglass cell wall and slides down, the back of his head and neck colliding with the steel platform.

Henderson puts Miles back through the ropes and into the ring, and he and Smythe circle around their opponent, waiting for him to get back up. They are ready to double-team him when he gets to his feet, but Miles is ready for them: he evades a charge by Smythe, and when Henderson charges him, he lunges forward and drives a shoulder into Henderson’s stomach. Miles repels several alternating charges with blows to the face. Smythe grabs Miles in a headlock, but Miles pushes him back towards the ropes, punching him all the way until he breaks the hold. Henderson goes for another charge, but a high jump kick from Miles knocks him back against the ropes on the other side. Miles lands another high jump kick to Smythe, knocking him over the ropes to the outside, then he rushes at Henderson and clotheslines him over the top rope. Henderson gets back up and approaches the ropes, but Miles connects with a standing dropkick, driving him back-first into the chain wall, before driving Smythe’s throat into the top rope with a three-quarter facelock bulldog to keep him outside the ring. Finally, Miles flops down onto the mat. His two opponents are reeling on the steel platforms on opposite sides of the ring, and Miles takes the opportunity to recover as the clock counts down the final thirty seconds until the next cell is opened.

The horn finally sounds, and Miles climbs back to his feet to confront his next opponent. The spotlight lands on Fabrice Calour’s cell, and the Greatest Lover in the Western Hemisphere finally gets his chance to have a piece of Miles. Calour gets into the ring to confront his abusive mentor, but Miles pleads with him to let him have a chance to rest. Calour hesitates for a moment, but he soon resumes his approach towards Miles as the latter backs away into a corner, begging with both hands to be shown mercy. Calour draws his fist back to land a punch, and that is when Miles springs forward to disorient his opponent with a rake to the eyes. Calour stumbles backwards, blinded for a moment, and when he manages to clear his vision again he is taken down with a big boot to the face. Miles repels attacks from Henderson and Smythe with blows to the face, before turning his attention back to Calour, who lunges forward and takes Miles off his feet with a shoulder block. Henderson picks up Miles and Irish whips him towards Smythe, who lays out Miles with a spinebuster before picking him up and whipping him back to Henderson, who throws Miles into the corner with another belly-to-belly suplex. They hang Miles in the Tree of Woe and start laying into him with kicks and stomps to the chest and head while Calour climbs up the turnbuckle next to Bassin’ R’s cell. Bassin’ R has Len Y on his shoulders, and Calour reaches into the cell through the collapsed roof and pulls Len out and back into the ring. In the meantime, Miles flops down to his knees from his hanging position, but he does not have a chance to rest before Henderson and Smythe whip him over to the opposite corner, where Len delivers a diving spear from the top turnbuckle, followed by a leg drop from Calour. Henderson and Smythe pick up Miles and hold him up by the arms while Calour connects with a headbutt augmented by him kicking off from the turnbuckle pad behind him. He draws back for another blow, but Miles is able to twist his arms out of Henderson’s and Smythe’s grip and lock them into a double three-quarter facelock, which he then transitions into his now-staple bulldog to take them both out. Calour leans forward to help his allies, but Miles springs back up and shoulder charges him back into the turnbuckle before turning to look for Len, who leaps at him from out of nowhere with a slingshot crossbody. However, Miles rolls backwards with the force of the move and actually ends up on top of Len in a pinning situation. The referee counts the pin, but it is broken after two counts by Calour. Miles gets up from the pin and backs right into Henderson, who throws him over the top rope to the platform with a release German suplex. The four allies have a team talk for a moment, before they all climb out to the platform together with the exception of Len Y, who stays next to the ring ropes. Calour climbs a few feet up the chain wall while Smythe and Henderson get Miles into position for a double suplex next to the wall of Bassin’ R’s cell. As they deliver the suplex, Calour launches himself off the wall and Len slingshots off the ropes, and they both deliver a missile dropkick to Miles mid-move. The combined force exerted by all four wrestlers tears down the wall of the cell, and Bassin’ R is only just able to get out of the way as Miles crashes towards him.

Bassin’ R lands a few stomps on Miles and leaves his cell through the hole in the wall. He beckons to his teammates to whip Miles towards him, and they oblige, but Miles breaks R’s headlock with a knee to the ribs and rolls back into the ring. Bassin’ R’s allies gesture to him that it is his turn to get some action in, but as soon as R steps through the ropes, the horn sounds for his cell to be opened, and it is shortly followed by the siren announcing that the ring will soon be lowered into the floor. Miles rolls out of the ring again onto the south platform and repels with punches and platform shoe kicks any attempt by the others to join him on that platform, so they are forced to evacuate to other platforms. As the ring begins to lower out of the arena, Henderson and Smythe occupy the north platform opposite Miles, Len Y is on the west platform and Calour and Bassin’ R are together on the east platform. The ring is halfway down. Miles is exhausted, clutching the chain wall to keep himself up, and Calour whispers something into R’s ear. R makes a hand gesture to Len Y on the opposite platform, and they simultaneously leap across to the south platform to join Miles, using the top of the ringpost as a stepping stone. Miles hears them land and turns round, only to receive Nasty Boys-esque clubbing blows to each side of the head, followed by a double Polish Hammer to the chest that takes him off his feet. Len and R pick him up again and drive him face-first into the chain wall, aggravating the cut that he has already received to the forehead as the ring finishes its descent and a steel shutter slides across to cover it. Len and R lift Miles up onto their shoulders and throw him down back-first onto the shutter. Miles lies reeling for a moment, but he somehow manages to get back to his feet after a couple of minutes. He tries to scramble up to the now vacant west platform, but Len jumps back across and kicks him back down. He tries the other platforms, but the other participants refuse to let him climb back up, and he is left lying on the shutter until it begins to open again. He stands on the edge of the shutter, waiting for a chance to leap down into the ring, but it is a very long drop. As the shutter reaches halfway, he sees a ladder that has been set up in the centre of the ring, and he leaps onto the top of it and climbs down. The others wait as the ring rises until the top turnbuckles are level with the edges of the platforms, and they use them to climb down.

The ring is now filled with weapons: the aforementioned ladder set up in the centre, along with tables, chairs, dustbins, some panes of glass left over from the Shattered Glass Match, some light tubes and log cabins, kendo sticks, lead pipes, sledgehammers and even a replica of the WWE ‘Spinner’ Championship belt. Miles quickly arms himself with a chair and repels the first few assaults from R, Len and Henderson, but Calour wrenches the chair away from him and Smythe grabs him from behind and locks in a one-armed Boston Crab. It appears that Miles is finally about to tap out when Smythe releases the hold and allows Henderson to hit his finisher, a running powerslam, onto the ladder which Calour has folded up and laid out on the mat. Bassin’ R picks up Miles, delivers a few chops to the chest and then connects with his finishing move, a very theatrical triple T-Bone Suplex through several log cabins, followed by Len’s Butt Bounce finisher with the added help of a couple of light tubes. The four who have already performed their finishers pick up Miles and get ready to hand him over to Calour, but amazingly Miles fights back, having grabbed a lead pipe while he was lying on the mat. He nails all five of them with the pipe and scrambles to the top of one of the still-intact cells, taking a few moments to lie down and catch his breath. His rest is cut short as he sees Bassin’ R climbing the turnbuckle towards him, and he jumps up, catching the criss-crossed chains that comprise the roof of the Chamber.

He displays impressive body strength despite all he has been through as he swings across the chains to the centre of the Chamber ceiling. R and Len swing over after him, and they engage in a kicking war above the ring. However, Miles’ platforms once again give him the advantage, and Len and R are forced to drop down into the ring. Miles does not see that their gymnastic skill has helped them to land on their feet, as his attention is distracted by the sight of Henderson and Smythe swinging across to him from each side. Finding himself surrounded, Miles swings backwards towards the cell he originally climbed up, only to find Calour has occupied the top of it. Calour grabs Miles as he drops back onto the cell, twists his arms into a straitjacket position and lifts him up onto his shoulders, then leaps from the top of the cell to deliver the Love Bomb through a brutal construction of tables and panes of glass that has been set up by Len Y and Bassin’ R. Henderson and Smythe climb back down into the ring, and all five of Miles’ former tutees pile on top of him. The referee counts the pin, and Miles has finally been eliminated.

The five of them celebrate in the ring for a moment, but soon Sean Pomeroy’s words dawn on them: There must be a winner. Soon they all back away from each other and arm themselves with a weapon, each one waiting for another to make the first move. At the same time that they realise that Len and R’s tag team experience can work to their advantage, the two have already struck Henderson and Smythe in the ribs with the kendo sticks they are holding, and they attack in unison with the sticks to drive Calour’s chair into his face. Bassin’ R then picks up Len and assists him in landing a big splash on Calour, and they both pin him for the elimination, securing an LWR Tag Team Championship opportunity for them in the future. They high-five each other and turn their attention to Henderson and Smythe, who both charge at R and drive him back into a turnbuckle. Henderson keeps Len occupied while Smythe applies the Boston Crab to R, who taps out, leaving Len partnerless. However, Len uses his acrobatic skill to evade a blow from both sides, causing Henderson and Smythe to hit each other and start a brawl. Henderson goes for a German suplex on Smythe, but it is countered and transitioned into a double-underhook submission hold by the Master of Holds. Henderson is about to submit, when a whistle makes Smythe release the hold and they both look around for Len. When they finally see him, they are swiftly taken off their feet as Len leaps from the ladder and lands a flying crossbody on both of them at the same time. He is still lying on top on them as the referee counts the double pin, and Len Y wins the Extreme Elimination Chamber despite being one of the first participants in the match.

As the Chamber is raised and the debris is cleared, Miles skulks away up the ramp, kicking at the guardrail and screaming at Aki Nonaka, who is carrying his shirt and jacket while ignoring his rants and insults. Len Y and Bassin’ R help each other to the locker rooms, Calour’s tag team partner Toru Sakada comes to help him, and Henderson and Smythe leave separately. The camera then pans to Sean Pomeroy and Ed Kennedy at the commentary booth.

Pomeroy: Well, everyone, it’s been an amazing night! Three brutal matches came to an end in incredible circumstances, and I, for one, am excited to find out the fallout from this evening’s events on the next show. Ed Kennedy, thank you very much once again for being my broadcast colleague tonight, and I hope you’ll stick around to host LWR TV from now on.

Kennedy: Sean, I’d like to thank Mr. Lester for taking me on, and as for sticking around: after an evening like the one we’ve just had, how can I refuse?

Pomeroy: To the fine folk watching at home, thank you for joining us for the first ever Extreme Exhibitions Pay-Per-View, and we’ll see you all again on LWR TV later this week! Goodnight!

Next week – Chapter 8: The Death of Hulkamania


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